Ateneo tops UST in Game 1
September 24, 2006 | 144 views
WORDS: Reuben Ezra Terrado of Ubelt.com
One second was all it took for one Doug Kramer to move Ateneo De Manila to just one win shy from the ultimate prize. Kramer unleashed the immaculate game-winner with no time left to take Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament after a nerve-wracking 73-72 victory over University of Santo Tomas last September 24 at the Araneta Coliseum sending the Blue Eagle faithful into joyous delirium and greatly shocking the Tiger crew as to what had happened. |
“He [Kramer] was the first and only option,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black. “Macky [Escalona] made a very good pass. Chris [Tiu] was scoring the entire the game so I figured the defense will go to him and will forget Doug. I was hoping that it would happen when I diagramed the play and it did.”
“That play helped me win the game ten years ago when I was with San Miguel,” Black vividly remembers. “Here in Ateneo, that was the first time we used that play.”
It looked like UST would grab the series curtain raiser after Allan Evangelista made a tough fade away after an inbounds pass from Anthony Espiritu, 72-71, with one second left sans Kramer’s last second heroics.
“The game could still be won in just one second so I never gave up,” added Black.
Kramer actually scored Ateneo’s last six points. He scored a short stab to beat the shot clock to go-ahead, 69-68, and made another off a drive-and-draw play by Tiu with 23 ticks left to go ahead, 71-70. His last bucket was the most important, which gave the Blue Eagles a 1-0 series lead.
JC Intal led the way with 21 points, six rebounds, and two steals. Kramer had 14 points, 13 rebounds, and a block while Tiu provided 12 points and two triples.
The win spoiled Jervy Cruz’s splendid performance after the rookie played like a veteran carrying the load with 20 points and 13 rebounds, nine on an offensive variety. It was the first loss of the Tigers when Cruz scores 20 points or more this season.
Evangelista followed Cruz’s suit with 13 points while Espiritu had 11 points. Jojo Duncil had nine points and eight rebounds as Japs Cuan got nine points, seven rebounds, and three assists.
The game was meant to go back-and-forth after a 57-all count at the end of the third period became 62-61 Santo Tomas advantage when a goaltending violation was called on the Eagles. Then, Intal canned two jumpers but Cruz countered with his own set of points to retake the lead, 66-65.
After Intal scored again, both teams would shoot blanks until Duncil made two crucial free throws off a Tiu foul, 68-67, 1:53 remaining.
Cruz’s two charities at the 45.2 second mark again gave the Growling Tigers another one-point edge, 70-69.
The biggest lead was only at nine points after Jai Reyes hit a three from the key in the second quarter, 26-17. But the Tigers engineered a 9-2 blast and Cuan scored on a fastbreak after that to reclaim the lead in the dying seconds of the quarter until Escalona’s two free-throws tied the game at halftime, 35-all.
Ateneo heads to the second game on September 30 vying for its fourth men’s basketball crown with still having some things to work on. “Obviously, our post defense has to improve,” Black said. “We tried to do a good job helping on the post plays of Cruz and Evangelista but somehow they were still able to score.”
UST coach Pido Jarencio remains optimistic even with the loss. “Confident pa rin kami. Nagkaroon lang ng konting mental lapse. Charge it to experience dahil mga bata pa sila.”
“Huwag kayo mag-alala. Babalik kami sa Thursday,” Jarencio assured to the UST supporters.
RELATED ARTICLES
MOST READ ARTICLES
