IT WAS the last two minutes of the ballgame.
Cold sweat dripped from UST Tiger Dylan Ababou’s yellow jersey. He looked at the clock and realized that they could be two minutes away from victory or from being dethroned. Then he made a three-pointer that trimmed the lead down to only five points, 65-60. That seemed to have been the lift they badly needed.
But no matter how hard Dylan and his teammates tried to close in and keep their back-to-back championship hopes alive, it wasn’t enough. The buzzer had already sounded.
Girding for ‘vengeance’
The day before the game, Dylan did his normal routine – go to class and go to basketball practice. But during that day’s practice, the UST Tigers were not just practicing for a normal game—they were practicing for their stepladder semifinals tussle against Season 69 first runner-up, the Ateneo Blue Eagles. It was a “win-or-go-home” situation for both teams.
During the practice, Coach Pido Jarencio was his usual tongue-lashing-self. He told his boys to be aggressive and tough because those qualities would be the factors that will determine the next day’s outcome.
“We can’t lose tomorrow’s game. And (Ateneo) won’t win against us,” Dylan said in Filipino recalling Coach Pido’s words.
Dylan said that Coach Pido wanted them to have that kind of mentality when they meet the Blue Eagles the following day.
In their rubbermatch against the Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws last September 17, Coach Pido had combined two sets of defensive strategies. In a normal FEU offense, the Tigers executed a man-to-man defense. But when UST committed a foul, they would switch to a two-three zone defense on the next possession. That kind of defensive set confused the relatively inexperienced Tamaraws that led to numerous FEU turnovers and a win for UST.
Coach Pido thought that maybe the coaches of the other teams were trying to “scout” their defensive sets so they tried to use a different one. For the game against the Blue Eagles, the Tigers tried to use a different kind of defensive set. At first, they had executed a man-to-man defense but whenever Ateneo fed the ball to the post, the Tigers would execute a two-three zone defense to contain Ateneo’s big men such as the stocky Ford Arao and the lanky Nonoy Baclao.
Dylan said that they had to “be smart and play with heart” for them to win the game.
Not only it was the semifinals, but Dylan added that the game was “payback time” for them because during the second round of the eliminations, Ateneo “escaped” thanks to Kirk Long’s bailout fade-away jumper with less than two second left in the contest.
Game-day
It was game-day. Dylan woke up at 9 a.m. on that rainy Sunday morning. He would normally wake up earlier but Coach Pido adviced them to wake up at that time during game days so they would be fresh come game time. Then, he went to school to meet his teammates before going to the Big Dome.
At the bus going to Araneta, the players were just having fun. But Dylan saw that some players were not really having fun. They just laughed with their teammates even though they felt the pressure of the do-or-die game.
“Nakita ko sa mata nila na may konting pressure. ‘Yung parang pag ngingiti sila, pilit,” Dylan said.
He could see the pressure in their eyes because they also tinkered with the possibility of losing.
At the dugout in Araneta, Coach Pido discussed thier game plan. He said that the scoring of Ateneo’s key players should be limited. Dylan said that it was better for those players not to score in double digits. Coach Pido also told his boys to just follow the three P’s: to play with Pride, to play with (heart) “Puso,” and to be (aggressive) “Palaban.” Dylan later told his teammates to just “loosen up” and to “think positive” because if they were too “tight” and pressured, they would be prone to committing a lot of turnovers.
The game
Capitalizing on the absence of the sweet-shooting Chris Tiu in Ateneo’s starting line-up, the Tigers took the driver’s seat with a 9-2 first-quarter run. The Blue Eagles tried to employ an early press but UST just scorched Ateneo’s defensive ploy with a bushel of fast-break points. The Tigers also controlled the boards, enabling them to finish the quarter with an eight-point lead.
The second quarter was a different story. Tiu started to heat up. He scored eight of his 14 points in the first few minutes. The Tigers became hesitant in taking their shots due to Ateneo’s good defense. They also committed a lot of miscues which led to several bungled scoring opportunities. Moments later, the Blue Eagles captured the lead when the seldom-used Michael Baldos sank two of his career-high seven points from the foul line with 46 seconds remaining in the quarter. The Blue Eagles turned their first quarter deficit into a 32-30 halftime lead.
Although Dylan scored seven points in the third, he was virtually left on his own as no one among his teammates was able to back him up while Ateneo was thriving on a balanced offensive production from its second stringers like Baclao and Baldos. The Blue Eagles ended the quarter on top, 55-51.
The payoff period still belonged to the Blue Eagles, who then padded the lead to 11 points, 65-54. The España-based dribblers tried to stop the bleeding as Dylan waxed hot anew. But the last three-pointer he made was the closest the Tigers could get. The Blue Eagles hung on the lead even as UST had utilized a shooting lineup to chase them.
‘God’s plan’
Dylan had a good feeling about winning the game. Even in the dying seconds when Ateneo was poised to win the game, he felt that they would still be able to snatch the victory with a miracle shot.
There was one instance during the fourth quarter when the Tigers trapped Ateneo’s big men on the post. It was the time when the momentum shifted to UST. When Dylan was able to corner Arao, the latter tried to zip a pass to a teammate. Dylan thought that the pass was too short and Japs Cuan would be able to steal the ball away. But the ball instead went to Eric Salamat, who eventually made a three-point play. Dylan thought that it was impossible for Japs not to have recovered the ball because he was already in the passing lane when Arao made the pass.
Misfortune even struck Dylan when, as he was about to get the defensive rebound, the ball slipped off his hands and went to Nonoy Baclao who easily scored on a put-back.
“It really wasn’t for us. The first thing I thought was that God had a better plan for us,” Dylan said. At home, Dylan had a one-on-one with God.
“I trust Him and I don’t blame Him for what happened,” he said.
UST rookie sensation Khasim Mirza was a non-factor in the game as he was zero-of-six from the three-point stripe and scored a measly three points—well below his 15-point average. During the first round of eliminations, he was the one responsible for the Tigers’ thrashing of the Blue Eagles, 87-74, as he scored a career-high 25 points.
The reason for his sub-par effort was because he had flu during that game, Dylan said. However, he did not blame Khasim nor the latter’s illness for their defeat.
Tiger’s thoughts
The next day was not a normal school day for Dylan.
“I was sad and I thought that this season was a failure. Although we were able to make the Final Four, we weren’t able to achieve a back-to-back (championship),” he said.
“All the things we worked hard for last summer were wasted. We’ll think about that for one year and we’ll again prepare for another year,” he added. But Dylan was not that depressed because many people said that “It’s okay. You still had a great game.”
Host’s ‘curse’
No host seniors’ basketball team in the history of the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) has ever been crowned champion, legitimately or otherwise.
The Tigers, hosts of the UAAP 70th season, has fulfilled that prophecy once again. And Dylan is starting to believe that the host’s “curse” is true.
In 2004, the La Salle Green Archers, who hosted Season 67, nearly broke the curse after bagging the cage title against FEU. But they had to return the championship trophy to the Tamaraws after two of their players were found out to have faked their academic credentials.
Last season, the UE Red Warriors were the hosts. They were the pre-season favorites to win the crown because they had a very deep lineup. They had players like Bon Bon Custodio, the 6’3” Mark Borboran, and former Rookie of the Year Marcy Arellano. They were not able to win the championship as the Tigers ousted them in the Final Four despite their twice-to-beat advantage.
Preparations
As part of their preparations, for Season 71, the Tigers will join the upcoming Philippine Basketball League (PBL) season. In their previous stint in the PBL as UST-Kettle Korn, they were winless in 14 outings. Dylan, however, thinks that a PBL experience would be helpful to them because of the league’s more competitive atmosphere
Meanwhile UAAP MVP Jervy Cruz will be donning the national colors in the upcoming Southeast Asian Games in Thailand this December.
Anthony Espiritu, Jun Cortez, June Dizon, and Rum Perry Scott will not be in the lineup next season due to graduation. But despite their absence, Dylan thinks they can still win the championship.
“They’re a big part of the team but the nucleus is still there,” he said.
Dylan realized that their loss somehow had a positive effect on them.
“At least, we’ll be able to return next season with a vengeance. It’s in us. We’ll show that we’ll work harder in the off-season during our practices. The fire in us will be more passionate and we’re going to be stronger than ever,” he concluded.
*EDITOR’S NOTE: The author, a third-year AB journalism student at the Faculty of Arts and Letters, wrote this article originally for his Literary Journalism class under Prof, Lito B. Zulueta, the Varsitarian’s publications adviser.
