ARCHERS SHOOT DOWN EAGLES, WILL FACE UE IN UAAP FINALS

Green and Blue. That’s the color that filled and separated the Big Dome today. With more than 23,000 plus jampacked crowd that filled the Araneta Coliseum up to the rafters. Students and Alumni of the green side of the De La Salle University emerged victorious over their arch rival Ateneo De Manila University.

With a 65-60 victory over the Blue Eagles, the Green Archers booked the second Finals seat against the unscathed University of the East Red Warriors. The Green Archers dominated the game after the half, but the Blue Eagles refused to give up and threatened up until the final seconds, after a triple of rookie Nonoy Baclao that pushed the Eagles within striking distance 62-60.

But veteran JV Casio calmly sank both his free throw to make it 64-60, Casio must have remembered their recent game against the UE Red Warriors where he fumbled in the free throw line where they could have prevented the Warriors from sweeping the elimination round.

Veterans Cholo Villanueva, TY Tang, Rico Maierhofer simply outplayed their Ateneo counterpart. These veterans outhustled, outrebounded most of the Ateneo players.

Defense was also the key in La Salle’s victory. Chris Tiu, the hero in Ateneo’s previous 65-64 win, was silenced in the last minute by the stifling defense of the Green Archers.

Looks like the UE Red Warriors will have its hands pull against the DLSU Green Archers. Having won the Fil-Oil and Nike summer tournament in the pre season, the Green Archers are touted as the team to beat in these years UAAP wars. These two evenly match up. DLSU beats UE in the semifinal of the Nike tournament. UE avenged it with a 20 point lopsided win in the first round and then barely escaping De La Salle with an overtime win.

Marcy Arellano, Elmer Espiritu, Mark Borboran, Kelvin Gregorio, James Martinez and the rest of the UE Red Warriors should not be overconfident and should be wary against the dangerous DLSU Green Archers.

It’s the second time that brothers who are coaching in UAAP will meet in the Finals. First was the Banal Brothers who had done it way back in 2003. Koy Banal with the FEU Tamaraws and Joel Banal with Ateneo Blue Eagles, with the former winning the crown. This year it will be the Pumaren Brothers with Franz with DLSU and Dindo with UE. Franz has the experienced, winning four in his first four years in the UAAP. Dindo should do his assignment very well if he wants to win one.

Let’s all wait and see if who wins, UE Red Warriors versus De La Salle Green Archers in the UAAP Season 70 Finals, your school, your choice. Nothing beats College Basketball…..