Eagles seek title repeat vs Warriors

MANILA, Philippines - Defending champion Ateneo hopes to retain the title in the season it has dominated while the University of the East seeks to move out of a 23-year limbo as the   spirited chase for the 72nd UAAP men’s basketball crown comes down to a deciding game today at the Araneta Coliseum.

The defending champion Eagles hope to bank on their experience to complete a back-to-back title romp while the Warriors try to ride the momentum of their big Game Two win to end a long title drought.

Ateneo coach Norman Black has stressed the need to toughen up on team’s defense throughout, which bogged down in Game Two, enabling the Warriors to run away with an 88-68 rout and force the sudden death.

Gametime is at 3:30 p.m.

“I think their big guys made five triples in Game Two and that’s something they haven’t done in the past so we have to do a better job defending the three-point line against their big guys,” said Black.

He also felt the need to execute their inside offensives efficiently through last year’s MVP Rabeh Al-Hussaini.

“We shot the ball extremely well from two points and I just thought we settled for too many three-point shots, which is really not our game,” he said.

UE coach Lawrence Chongson, on the other hand, said composure will be the key as he hinted at a down-to-the-wire finale where the pressure would be heavy on the Eagles.

“At this point, we’re just going to play to win while the heavily favored Eagles will be playing not to lose because of all the expectations, pressure will be the key in this sudden death game,” said Chongson who drew a combined 40-point output from Elmer Espiritu and Pari Llagas to foil the Eagles’ sweep bid.

Ateneo is actually shooting for a twin victory as the Eaglets battle the La Salle Junior Archers for UAAP high school basketball championship in their own winner-take-all match starting at 11 a.m., also at the Big Dome.

Relying on an excellent defensive job on Ateneo hotshot Kiefer Ravena, the Junior Archers edged the Eaglets, 57-53, last Tuesday to force a sudden death for this year’s crown.

While admitting UE remains the underdog despite its big rout last Sunday, Chongson has encouraged his charges to step up their game in the face of an expected strong fan support for the Blue Eagles.

The Ateneo-UE title showdown also brought back memories of the 2006 finals between Ateneo and UST where the Eagles lost the decider after taking Game One via close margin and losing Game Two in a blowout.

UE, as host, finished second in 2006 but blew its twice-to-beat advantage. It did the trick on host Far Eastern this year to pull off a pair of Final Four wins, 84-75 and 78-72.

Both series were also halted by powerful typhoons – ”Milenyo” in 2006 and “Ondoy” this year – and like UST coach Pido Jarencio in 2006, Chongson is also a rookie coach chasing a UAAP championship.

Black, however, downplayed the uncanny similarities.

“If you’re in the moment and if you’re actually involved, you don’t think about any of those. All you think about is what’s going to happen right now, today and what am I going to do with this opportunity,” said Black.

“You can’t live in the past but as far as we’re concerned, we will show up to win, that’s the bottomline,” he said.