The Rivalry: episode ’17

Eagles try to put order on archers ‘Mayhem’

MANILA, Philippines — Here we go again – Green vs Blue. Champion vs determined challenger. Mayhem vs efficiency.

This is one UAAP Finals series that continues to beg for an encore.

La Salle swept Ateneo in last year’s best-of-three finale but the Blue Eagles are as resolute as the Green Archers in writing a better ending this time.

The country’s fiercest collegiate rivals go head-to-head again today at the MOA Arena in Pasay in what promises to be a classic, hotly disputed series for the UAAP Season 80 men’s basketball crown.

“Wala nang ibang motivation kundi championship. Yun lang, wala nang hugot o ano; championship na ang pinag-uusapan dyan (There’s only one source of motivation for the team – the championship. Forget about whatever drama, this is all about the championship now),” said DLSU coach Aldin Ayo.

“We didn’t play this season to just win in the semis; we played this season to go as far as this team is capable of,” said AdMU mentor Tab Baldwin, meaning of course, the championship itself.

This will be return titular bout between Baldwin’s Ateneo and Ayo’s La Salle.

Last year, the Archers gave the Eagles the blues, winning it all in two games with the Taft-based cagers relishing the chance to score a repeat against their rivals.

“Despite the fact that it is Ateneo, we still have to take it as a regular game and do the things we always did – stick our game plan and make sure everybody is locked in and ready,” said DLSU ace Ben Mbala, who turned in whopping numbers of 28 points, 19 rebounds, six steals and six blocks in leading the team to a 79-76 win over erstwhile unbeaten Ateneo in their second round tussle.

“We’re a better team now (compared to last year), as simple as that. We’ve proven a better team all year long,” said Baldwin.

“I think apart from one big offensive lapse in one period against La Salle, we’ve proven as good as they are. We had a terrible offensive lapse in the fourth quarter of the second game and it cost us the game. I don’t see that my team will do that again. But we have to get ourselves into winning position first,” he added.

The rivals took different routes to the finals. La Salle cashed in on its win-once bonus in the F4 with an 82-75 disposal of No. 3 Adamson whereas Ateneo dropped a 67-80 decision to No. 4 Far Eastern and had to survive a tough rubber match that went into overtime, 88-84, before making the Last Dance with DLSU.

“Hopefully we learned from our lessons from last year. We have to be more composed this year because La Salle is not gonna play us any softer than FEU,” said Ateneo’s Thirdy Ravena.

The Archers are actually the hottest team today, sweeping the second round before finishing off Adamson in the F4 in one game. Their last setback was a 75-76 heartbreaker to AdMU last Oct. 8, which gave them 5-2 after the first round.

“In the first round, there were lots of distractions. Simple schemes on defense, sometimes we can’t execute; we tried to gamble a lot and we were very undisciplined then. But it became different in the second round because they just surrendered to the system and overcame the distractions,” said Ayo.