Warriors cap historic sweep over Archers

By Ian Brion
Business Mirror
September 14, 2007



University of the East (UE) is now two wins away from finally winning a crown after a long while.

UE survived a gritty and rough De La Salle, 92-84, in overtime last night to complete an extremely rare 14-0 sweep of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 70 men’s basketball tournament before a jampacked crowd at the Araneta Coliseum.

And for becoming the first team in 14 years to win all its elimination round games, the Red Warriors will advance outright to their first championship appearance since 1990 and gain their best shot at ending the school’s 22-year title drought.

“Now I could say the word ‘sweep’—na-sweep din namin!” said Dindo Pumaren, the first coach to accomplish the feat since Aric del Rosario did it with University of Santo Tomas (UST) in 1993.

“But we haven’t achieved anything yet. We only got the bonus of going straight to the finals, but this is not the dream of the school, which is to win the title, and kalahati pa lang kami n’un,” added the fourth-year mentor.

“So we’ll continue our strategy of taking it one game at a time. We’ll just take a brief rest and then we’ll go back and prepare for the finals.”

Unlike in their first 13 games, which they won by an average of 16.8 points, the Red Warriors had to go through the proverbial eye of the needle in this one as the Green Archers came all-out not just to deny them of a nook in UAAP history but also to advance their own search for it.

In fact, the Recto-based dribblers saw their fate slipping out of their hands when Jayvee Casio trooped to the line for two free throws with UE ahead by just a point, 77-76, with only 3.5 seconds left in regulation.

“Of all people si Casio pa,” said Pumaren, who is now 4-2 against his elder brother Franz in their head-to-head match-up. “So akala ko talaga talo na.”

But Casio, a certified gunner, missed his first try before banking the second to send the match into overtime, 77-77.

There, James Martinez drilled in a triple and Hans Thiele sank two charities to ignite the game-clinching 11-4 blast—and it did not take too long before the red side of things, which account for some 60 percent of the close to 15,000 crowd, celebrated their team’s date with history—and leaving the other green side with envy.

The loss dropped the Archers to third spot with nine wins and five losses. They must now hope that their archrival Ateneo Blue Eagles lose to lowly National University (NU) tomorrow at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium to force a playoff for the No. 2 seed and the twice-to-beat advantage that goes with it.

Thiele came up with a double-double of 16 points and 16 rebounds, while Martinez had 13 markers, including three from beyond the arc, and four other Warriors—Mark Borboran, Marcy Arellano, Parry Llagas and Kelvin Gregorio—finished in double figures. The Red Warriors dominated the boards, 64-37, to atone for their subpar shooting of 39.7 percent.

Casio scored 22 points on five-of-nine shooting from the three-point zone, while TY Tang had 16 to lead the Green Archers, who absorbed their second straight loss.

A near free-for-all erupted at the 56.6-second mark of the opening quarter resulting to the banishment of De La Salle reserve center Bryan Ilad and a number of technical fouls.

The incident started when Maierhofer struck Borboran with a hard foul on the face. UE’s Mark Fampulme confronted Maierhofer right in front of the Green Archers’ bench and was closed to being lynched but cooler heads interfered.

Just as when the two appeared to have been pacified, Ilad suddenly came from behind and sneaked a punch at Fampulme’s nape.

Ilad, a transferee from the Philippine College of Criminology, was slapped with a disqualification foul and is a candidate for suspension. Maierhofer was assessed an unsportsmanlike foul, and Fampulme a technical foul for taunting. Both teams were also given technical fouls.

UE got the initial positive effect of the fracas as it fired a 16-7 run to take a 32-23 lead halfway through the second quarter before De La Salle bounced back to close in at 45-44 at the half.

The Green Archers then grabbed the driver’s seat in the third quarter and led by as many as seven, 60-53, before the Warriors caught them at 69-all to set up a thrilling finale.

Sharing the day’s spotlight was Far Eastern University (FEU), which upended defending champion University of Santo Tomas (UST), 84-73, to force a playoff for the No. 4 slot.

The Tamaraws and the Growling Tigers will again meet Monday also at the Big Dome, to decide who will join the Blue Eagles and the Green Archers in the step-ladder phase.

“My boys just want to prove that we belong in this league,” said rookie coach Glen Capacio. “They want to send a message na kahit mga bata lang sila ay kaya nilang makipagsabayan kahit sa mga veterans.”

“I didn’t expect that we will go this far. Wala pa man kami sa Final-Four pero para na kaming nag-champion,” added Capacio. “But we’ll still make the best out of it.”

Standings: x-UE 14-0, y-Ateneo 9-4, y-La Salle 9-5, z-FEU 8-6, z-UST 8-6, NU 5-8, Adamson 1-12, UP 0-13. (x)—clinched finals slot; (y)—clinched semifinals berth; (z)—clinched playoff berth.