FOR THE first time in 14 years, the five-time defending champions, the Ateneo Blue Eagles, were unable to clinch a spot in the Final Four round of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament.
The fate of the Blue Eagles’ title defense came down to their last elimination round match. A familiar foe stood between the Blue Eagles and their Final Four aspirations: The University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers.
It was this same squad that the Blue Eagles beat at last year’s finals to notch their fifth straight championship. Unfortunately for the Blue and White community, history had no intention of repeating itself.
A determined Jeric Teng-led UST team answered every Ateneo run down the stretch to finish with an 82-74 victory at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on September 18. This not only reversed the two squads’ fortunes but also relegated the Blue Eagles to an early exit for the first time since 1999.
End of an era
The elimination of the Blue Eagles from this year’s title chase not only marks the end of their Season 76 campaign but also the end of their five-year reign as the UAAP men’s basketball champions.
With a sixth consecutive title now out of the question, it will be a while before any team comes close to threatening University of the East’s (UE) seven straight championships. UE’s extraordinary streak from 1965 to 1972 under legendary coach Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan is the longest streak in league history.
Although the Blue Eagles fell short of extending their run at the pinnacle of collegiate basketball, the team’s five-peat remains the longest in the UAAP since the beginning of the Final Four era in Season 56.
Tough act to follow
Despite entering the season as the defending champions, the Blue Eagles weren’t tagged as the team to beat. That title belonged to preseason favorites UE and National University (NU), the finalists of the FilOil Flying V preseason tournament.
One of the reasons the Ateneo wasn’t labeled as a contender was the team’s thin frontline. The departures of big men Greg Slaughter, Nico Salva and Justin Chua left a big hole inside the paint. What made their loss an even bigger concern was that the rest of the competition fortified their rosters with imports.
The entrance of giants such as Ingrid Sewa and Charles Mammie to a league that already featured imports such as Karim Abdul, Emmanuel Mbe and Anthony Hargrove as well as talented locals like Arnold Van Opstal and Jason Perkins proved to be a regular matchup problem for the Ateneo team throughout the year.
Aside from the frontcourt battle, the team had to deal with a new coach and a new system. With Norman Black’s decision to return to the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Coach Bo Perasol stepped in as the new head coach.
Perasol is known for his run-and-gun system in the PBA and this is the style of play he envisioned for the Blue Eagles as well. In an interview with The GUIDON earlier this year, Perasol said he wasn’t implementing this system simply because it was his philosophy, but because the composition of the Ateneo roster made it a necessity; given the lack of dominant big men, the running game, along with the Blue Eagles’ defense-first approach, was the team’s best bet.
Uphill climb
Even with the head coach and roster turnover, the Blue and White community still had understandably high expectations. These expectations were a tall order from the start, but things got even more difficult when the players’ injuries started to pile up right before the season.
These injuries resulted in a depleted lineup that forced the Blue Eagles to prematurely exit some preseason tournaments. Athletics Director Richard Palou announced the decision to pull out of the preseason after securing a 78-70 victory over rival De La Salle University (DLSU). “We’ve been playing with 10 players and the coaching staff feels that if we continue to play with 10 players in a game, it may lead to more injuries,” said Palou.
Then, in the days leading up to the opening of the UAAP, star guard Kiefer Ravena suffered a grade three sprain on his right ankle. Despite the injury, Ravena suited up for the season-opener against NU but was limited to eight ineffective minutes. Clearly not ready to play yet, Ravena sat out the next two matches against Far Eastern University (FEU) and DLSU.
With Ravena’s absence, the Blue Eagles struggled at the start of the season. They suffered their worst loss of the season against NU in the season-opener before dropping an overtime match to FEU in their second outing. The 73-82 loss to DLSU after that marked the first time the team started the season with a 0-3 win-loss record since 1997. “It’s an alarming start in as far as Ateneo standards are concerned,” admitted Perasol.
Making matters worse for the Blue Eagles was Gideon “GBoy” Babilonia’s season-ending shoulder surgery. With the 6’5” forward/center lost for the rest of the season, the Ateneo’s already depleted frontcourt thinned out even more.
For Perasol, the injury woes definitely posed a challenge for the team, but it would not be an excuse. “Hindi porke’t natalo kami, ‘yun (injuries) na ang dahilan (Injuries can’t be used as the reason just because we lost),” he emphasized.
Finding their rhythm
Regardless of their record, the team was clearly making progress from game to game. The players started stepping up their game and found out how to play without having to depend heavily on Ravena to carry the team.
Rookie Chris Newsome proved to be a surprise early in the season. The former New Mexico University player proved that he was worth the wait imposed by residency rules, especially in the third match of the season where he posted a UAAP career-high 27 points against DLSU.
Nico Elorde and Von Pessumal also found themselves playing bigger roles this year, allowing them to increase their productivity and contributions to the team.
Their efforts, along with the steady play of graduating veterans Juami Tiongson and Ryan Buenafe, allowed the team to notch their first victory, trumping Adamson University (AdU), 71-59.
The Blue Eagles ended the first round with a victory over UST, giving them a 3-4 record. This put Ateneo in sixth place at the half of the season.
Race to the Final Four
With their first win in the bag, the Blue Eagles would go on to win two of their last three matches in the first round, ending the first half of the elimination round with a 3-4 win-loss record.
The back-to-back wins against University of the Philippines (UP) and UST at the end of the first round was just the beginning for the Ateneo. The team started the second round strong, winning their first three assignments against UP, AdU and FEU.
The early second round victories extended Ateneo’s winning streak to five games, their longest of the season. This strong stretch catapulted the Blue Eagles back into the race for the semi-finals. Everything was starting to click for the Blue Eagles at that point. The team’s next game, however, proved to be a crucial turning point in the season.
On the first of September, the Ateneo once again faced their rival DLSU. A back-and-forth affair between the two schools ultimately ended in a devastating loss for the Blue and White. The game’s final moments saw Green Archer Jeron Teng hit a tough game-winning basket over Newsome to seal a 66-64 victory for DLSU.
It was in this same game that head coach Bo Perasol was involved in a post-game confrontation with DLSU fan JJ Atayde. Upon reviewing the issue, the UAAP Board handed Perasol a one-game suspension for the Ateneo’s next game against UE.
The match against UE saw Ravena lead his team to victory with 22 points. The Blue Eagles’ win successfully kept the Ateneo’s Final Four aspirations alive while eliminating the Red Warriors from the race.
However, controversy arose once more when news broke out that Perasol was actually at the venue during the game against UE. A photo of the Ateneo’s head coach congratulating his assistant coach surfaced, triggering various reactions on social media.
According to UAAP rules, “The presence of a suspended coach, manager, assistant manager, statistician, scorers, masseurs, etc. and those listed as members of the team shall not be allowed in the bench or venue during the period of suspension. A violation of the condition of the suspension shall result in the forfeiture of the game where such suspended team official or member was found present.”
This pushed members of the UAAP board from UE to request for an investigation of the incident, the results of which could have resulted in the Ateneo’s forfeiture of their 77-72 win over the Red Warriors.
Before a decision was made by the UAAP board, the Ateneo dropped a close match against NU that further threatened the defending champions’ Final Four bid. The UAAP board eventually arrived at a decision on September 12, in which they opted against the forfeiture of the Blue Eagles’ win and allowed the Ateneo to keep their 7-6 win-loss record that put them in a position to fight for a Final Four slot.
The UAAP Board, however, concluded that Perasol had not properly served his suspension in the UE match. That said, they ordered Perasol to accomplish his one-game ban during the Ateneo’s final elimination round match against UST, a game that held the fate of the Blue Eagles’ title defense.
Puso
Despite the slow start, injury woes and controversies, the Blue Eagles managed to position themselves to clinch a Final Four spot in their final elimination round game against UST. The match was a do-or-die affair between the two teams, with the winner getting to march on to the semi-finals round while the loser met the end of their season.
The game turned out to be a reflection of the Blue Eagles’ entire Season 76 campaign. The team found themselves facing an early deficit similar to the 0-3 start they endured early in the season. They eventually worked their way back into the game with a furious second half rally similar when they clawed their way back into the Final Four race. But the team came up short in the final moments of the game, consequently falling short of making it into the Final Four.
“We were half a step away from making it to the Final Four. Pero kinapos talaga (We simply fell short),” admitted Ravena after the eliminating game against UST.
This season might be remembered as the year that the Ateneo’s reign at the top ended, but this year’s Blue Eagles squad will definitely be remembered as the team that refused to give up in the face of adversity. This year’s squad proved that it doesn’t always have to be about winning. This year’s squad reminded us that a team with a lot of heart and fighting spirit is more than enough to make the Blue and White community proud.
