La Salle made key stops in the stretch as it pulled off a come-from-behind 76-74 victory over bitter rival Ateneo de Manila to seize a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three duel for the 70th UAAP junior’s title at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
David Webb, grandson of former senator and basketball great Freddie Webb, fired 17 points while Matthew Capacio, son of Far Eastern U coach Glen Capacio, chipped in 16 but it was Bryan Manguera and Marco Fortuna who made the biggest shots of the game.
Struggling in the first three quarters, Manguera found his rhythm as he scored 10 of his 11 points in the fourth quarter while Fortuna drained two foul shots with 19.9 seconds to go to seal the Junior Archers’ first win over the Eaglets after dropping their two elimination round games.
“Ateneo is a strong team, they’re bigger, quicker and faster,” said La Salle coach Boris Aldeguer, who steered the school to its first title two years back before skipping last season due to suspension.
“But our advantage is our heart, we wanted the win more,” he added.
Frank Golla led Ateneo, the defending champion, with 17 points while Keifer Ravena, a 13-year-old freshman whose father is former PBA rookie of the year winner Bong Ravena, added 16.
After the win, the Junior Archers lost their valuables after a suspected robber destroyed the wooden door of their dugout and carted away cash, cellular phones, i-pods, jewelries and some other important things.
“Our valuables are gone, what happened to the security here,” said Aldeguer.
People manning the venue, however, washed their hands saying that the league failed to assign two security men to guard the dugouts as agreed upon before the game since a robbery incident has already happened in this same venue early this season.
League officials had already reported the incident to the police.
Earlier, the Lady Eagles accomplished what the Eaglets failed to do, trouncing the stubborn State U Maroons, 64-60, to close in on the title in their own best-of-three showdown.