INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 3) It was a championship that marked a regime change for the country's most fabled school rivalry.

In a remarkable group effort by the band in blue, the Ateneo Blue Eagles pulled off a championship sweep to dethrone the La Salle Green Archers with a 62-51 blasting of their fiercest rival and wrest the UAAP Season 71 men's basketball crown Thursday night in front of an overflow crowd at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Eagles accomplished their return to glory by opting not to lean on one dominant performer and showing the same kind of heart that made them this year's top seed.

"We did not win this game in offense tonight, we won it at the defensive end," said Ateneo coach Norman Black. "We're a pretty intelligent team this year. We could actually execute defensive strategies that I've never been able to execute for other teams in Ateneo. A lot of credit goes to the players for being dedicated to defense."

And Finals Most Valuable Player Nonoy Baclao epitomized the Eagles' tough defensive stance by averaging 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 blocks despite norming only 6.6 points in the series.

"For a while there it did get a little bit scary at the end," said Black. "But again, our defense held up as it has the entire year."

Chris Tiu fueled the Eagles' comeback from a sluggish start by unloading 13 of his 16 points in the first half, which more than made up for a Game 1 performance that saw the King Eagle picking up three quick fouls and scoring a paltry two markers.

Season MVP Rabeh Al-Hussaini, who keyed the victory in the series opener with a phenomenal 31 points, also came through by scoring all of his seven markers in the third canto after riding the bench most of the first half due to early foul troubles.

But the hostility between the two elite teams was as real as the hype as the Archers refused to come out of the team dugout to receive the runner-up trophy.

"Being in the Finals for nine years, I've never seen the worst officiating in my Finals stint," an angry coach Franz Pumaren said after the Archers lost top two players JV Casio and Rico Maierhfofer in the second half due to fouls.

"It's like a script, you know the ending. They should have just given the trophy right away."

Although the overall head-to-head matchup between the two rivals remains tilted toward the Archers with 35 wins in 61 showdowns since 1986, the Eagles always have the upper hand come championship time.

The Eagles, now winning three of their four epic championship encounters, also won in 1988 and 2002, while La Salle prevailed only in 2001.

It was also Ateneo's finest run in the last two decades after wrapping up the season with 11 straight victories. Far Eastern University dealt the Eagles there lone loss during the elimination round in a 72-66 decision nearly two months ago.

Under Pumaren, it was also the first time the Archers got swept in one season by their arch rival. The Eagles triumphed by an average of 8.25 points in four meetings this year.

"Today is one of those situations where we have to win," said Black after the Eagles captured their fourth overall crown in the league. "You don't go into the season thinking you're going to seep La Salle, that's for sure."

But for a moment, the Ateneo euphoria nearly got eclipsed by what seemed like a La Salle reality.

Known for their ability to rise from adversity, the Archers threatened within three points at 50-47 after the Eagles soared by as many as 41-26 at halftime.

The Archers also opened the game looking intent in forcing a decider following the Eagles' 69-61 victory in the series opener last Sunday.

As the Archers got off to a 5-0 start, the Eagles took on the floor frustrated, with Black even throwing his game ID on court after Al-Hussaini got called for his second personal foul in the first three minutes of action.

The Archers led at 8-3 following a Simon Atkins trey, before the Eagles orchestrated a 24-9 comeback in a stretch bridging the first and second quarters to coast to a double-digit advantage at 27-17 even with Al-Hussaini riding the bench.

The Ateneo points came even from the most unlikely players -- the hardly-used Jobe Nkemakolam to Mike Baldos to Bacon Austria -- for a 20-15 lead.

After Tiu drilled seven straight points, the Eagles continued to surge and closed out the first half with eight unanswered points to post their biggest advantage at 41-26.

But by the second half, the Archers found an answer to the Eagles' amazing 75 percent shooting clip in the second quarter.

With Casio sizzling from beyond the arc, the Archers rose from a 15-point halftime deficit to threaten within three, 50-47, at the end of the third canto.

The Archers fired 18 of their 21 points from three-point range, 12 coming from Casio, in the third period.

Still, not everything went the Archers way as Maierhofer got ejected with 1:31 minutes left in the third period.

Game officials said Maierhofer, a Mythical Team member who averaged 13.1 points and 10.1 rebounds, flashed a dirty finger a quarter after getting slapped with a technical foul for taunting.

Yet Maierhofer claimed that he was signaling a teammate to defend with his index finger.

"It's a crucial game and you're going to call a technical foul when the player is not doing anything," Pumaren complained. "They didn't even allow us to play, calling a foul like that in a championship."

Although the incident sustained the Archers' charge, 50-47, a scoring drought hit them in the final period as the Eagles pulled away with a 57-49 spread heading into the final two minutes.

And it did not no help that Casio, also a Mythical Team member, fetched his fifth and final foul against Jai Reyes with 2:48 minutes left. Casio led the Archers with 18 points.

A three-point play by Reyes practically sealed the triumph for the Eagles with a 60-49 spread going in the closing seconds.

The victory also fortified Black's status in Philippine basketball as having won both in the pro and the collegiate level.

"A lot of my success [in the pro league] there was not just as a coach but as a player," said Black, who won his first title with the Eagles on his fourth year.

"Up until four years ago I've never coached in college basketball so obviously it's a learning experience for me also. It's a different brand of basketball. More importantly, the most satisfying thing is watching the players grow. And as they improve, the team improves and gets better. Thar's why I'm very happy for Rabeh, he really worked hard to improve his skills and ended up being MVP."

The game drew 22,955 fans, a clear proof that the two powerhouse squads unfailingly create a basketball buzz no local match up can generate.

It's the kind of mania that drove die-hards to queue and camp overnight at the ticket booths, pushed some to purchase a P350 patron ticket for a bootleg price of P25,000 and even prompted the Tiu family to hire bodyguards for their son Chris over the past few days.

Just like in Game 1, security was extra tight with over a hundred police from Camp Crame and the Quezon City Police District, K9 unit dogs and coliseum bouncers deployed inside and outside the Big Dome.

But in some instances, the Araneta security proved too unreasonably strict as only photographers were allowed to cover at courtside. All reporters, even from the national newspapers, were asked to leave and wound up covering on television at the press room.

A handful of reporters were later allowed to go inside the hardcourt, but only those in rubber shoes.

After the buzzer, the Eagles gathered at the center court for the coronation with some openly weeping with joy together with the star-studded crowd.

Al-Hussaini and Tiu, the two players who primarily carried the Eagles on their shoulders this season, also got locked up in a long embrace amid the frenzied celebration.

Tiu, who played his final year in the league, summed it up for the Eagles: "We made sure to be aggressive and just gave everything that we had."

The scores:

ATENEO 62--Tiu 16, Nkemakolam 8, Baclao 8, Al-Hussaini 7, Baldos 6, Buenafe 5, Reyes 5, Salamat 3, Austria 2, Escueta 2
.
LA SALLE 51--Casio 18, Walsham 8, Maierhofer 7, Revilla 5, Bagatsing 3, Atkins 3, Mangahas 3, Malabes 2, Ferdinand 2, Villanueva 0, Barua 0.

Quarters: 16-10, 41-26, 50-47, 62-51