Eagles, Archers eye UAAP duel

By Jonas Terrado - Manila Bulletin - September 14, 2008

Will it be an Ateneo-De La Salle duel in the UAAP basketball tournament finals?

This will be the quest of both the Blue Eagles and the Green Archers today when they face separate rivals in the Final 4 at the Araneta Coliseum.

The defending champions Archers meet Far Eastern University at 2 p.m. while the Eagles, who finished the double-round eliminations on top with a near-perfect 13-1 record, face University of the East iat 4 o’clock.

But while this possible scenario could happen for the first time since Ateneo defeated La Salle in 2002, UE and FEU hope to spoil it by forcing a rubber match and eventually beat their more-favored opponents.

"Hopefully maganda pa rin laro namin pero kumpiyansa ako na maganda itatakbo ng team," said UE coach Dindo Pumaren, whose team will look to become the first team in history to beat a top-seeded team since the Final Four format was institutionalized in 1997.

As for FEU mentor Glenn Capacio, a revenge of their 59-62 loss to the same Archers for the second twice-to-beat incentive is on his sight.

"Our backs are against the wall," said Capacio. "Siguro susubukan ng mga bata na pakita nila yung puso nila tulad nung mga games sa eliminations pero dapat gawin naming yung part namin sa laro para magkaroon pa ng isang game."

Despite having the advantage, both Ateneo and La Salle are not taking their opponents lightly.

"All our games against UE have been very close, not just this year but last season so we played them pretty well," Black said. "It’s never a game that has been lopsided so I think it’s going to be a tough game."

"They really picked up their intensity (UE) you can see it with the way they are playing," Black said. "They are pressuring the ball quite well these days and I think they have changed a little bit by going to their big men on the post, they are playing great basketball."

For his part, Pumaren said of the Tamaraws: "I think they are a very good team that can compete against us and I don’t think they will give the game to us,"

Hoping to make win for the third time after winning 64-58 last July 13 and 61-57 in overtime last August 21, Ateneo will rely on big man Rabeh Al-Hussaini, team captain Chris Tiu, rookie Ryan Buenafe and its other reliable players on the bench such as Noy Baclao and Eric Salamat.

But UE, which almost pulled off an upset over the Eagles in their second meeting, will counter with veteran Marcy Arellano, who has regained his consistent play, along with rookie Paul Zamar, Raffy Reyes, James Martinez and big men Pari Llagas, Elmer Espiritu and Hans Thiele.

As for Pumaren and his Archers, a better endgame execution is one of the main keys in their game against the Morayta-based squad.

"FEU really played hard last game, I guess we really need to have more effort, down the stretch things would have been over but we didn’t execute well," Pumaren said of his team’s playoff match with the Tamaraws.

In last Thursday’s match, JV Casio erupted for 16 points while Rico Maierhofer added 14 and 10 rebounds while Simon Atkins, Peejay Barua and Bader Malabes also contributed in the win.