Eaglets, Lady Tams near title

By Jonas Terrado - Manila Bulletin - September 21, 2008

Ateneo hammered out a convincing 72-62 victory over FEU-Nicanor Reyes Educational Foundation yesterday to take Game 1 of the 71st UAAP basketball tournament junior division finals at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Eaglets’ win came after the FEU Lady Tamaraws downed the University of the Philippines Lady Fighting Maroons, 54-52, in their separate women’s best-of-three finals.

The Eaglets, after a sluggish first quarter, came through with a sustained offensive in the next three periods to outbalance the Baby Tamaraws and move to within a win of claiming their sixth title since Jamike Jarin took over as head coach 11 seasons ago.

Ian Enriquez led Ateneo with 18 points and 17 rebounds while Juami Tiongson and Ael Banal, son of multi-titled coach Joel Banal, added 15 and 13 points, respectively.

Kiefer Ravena, son of former PBA player Bong Ravena, scored 11 points and five assists for the Loyola-based cagers.

The Baby Tamaraws raced to a 21-16 lead at the start before Ateneo exploded a 20-6 bomb to race to a 36-27 bubble at the turn.

The Eaglets stretched the lead to 16 points, 64-48, and used this as a cushion against the rallying Baby Tamaraws, who could only come to within 60-66, 1:49 remaining.

The Eaglets sealed the win as Ravena completed a three-point play off Armin Albano, 69-60, with jus 68 ticks left.

"There was a chance there that we could have gotten a big lead but knowing coach Horacio (Lim) and his team, they never gave up until the end," Jarin said.

In the first game, the Lady Tamaraws led, 52-43, with only two minutes and 23 seconds left but the Lady Fighting Maroons made a last gasp for glory, exploiting FEU’s misses from the stripes to threaten, 52-54, 19.9 seconds to go.

In that final two minutes stretch, the Lady Tamaraws sank only two of their 12 free throws.

This proved just enough as UP botched a potential game-winning three-point attempt by Jedil Robelo with a second to go.

First Game (Womens)
FEU 54 — Mercado 13, Miag-ao 8, Borja M. 6, Rivera 6, Borja C. 6, Positos 5, Reyes 4, Palmera 4, Sernal 2, Supnet 0, Leviste 0

UP 52 — Sadorra 17, Tolentino 16, Tomelden 7, Bautista D. 4, Cainglet 3, Casino 2, Paz 2, Stevens 1, Robelo 0, Bautista M. 0, del Rosario 0.
Quarters: 13-13; 26-15; 41-34; 54-52.

Second Game (Juniors)
ATENEO 72 — Enriquez 18, Tiongson 15, Banal 13, Ravena 11, Dumrique J. 6, Romero 4, Pessumal 2, Dumrique C. 1, Bugarin 1, Gamboa 1, Pe 0, Capacio 0, Reyes 0.

FEU-FERN 62 — Tolomia 18, Albano 11, Santiago 10, Almario 9, Escoto 7, Pardo 7, Infante 0, Managuelod 0, Bautista 0

Quarters: 16-21, 36-27, 51-41, 72-62.