INQUIRER Sports

IN THE END, one of the most exhausting yet exhilarating seasons in the University of the East’s basketball history left the Warriors broken-hearted like in the past 24 years.

The Warriors came up short, their newly developed free-flowing offense conking out under the weight of the Ateneo Blue Eagles’ defensive might.

For a while it was as if their approach, injected by rookie coach Lawrence Chongson, would take the Warriors all the way.

They surged to a late eight-game winning streak, highlighted by their ousting of twice-to-beat holder Far Eastern U in the Final Four. Firing on all cylinders, the Warriors humbled the Eagles, 88-68, Sunday to forge a winner-take-all Game 3.

But four days later, the Warriors were misfiring and later reduced to tears as they trudged to the locker room of the Araneta Coliseum.

“It was not really for us,” said Chongson. “Maybe, we were just pretenders and the law of averages caught up with us.”

UE shot just 31 percent from the field and their three-point shooting, which propelled them to victory in Game 2, was missing for the majority of the showdown.

Paul Lee and Elmer Espiritu combined for just 2-of-11 from beyond the arc, matching the performance of swingman Val Acuña, who had eight points.

“Ateneo was probably more emotionally and mentally prepared,” Chongson said. “Maybe we were not ready enough to tackle the game of this magnitude. We tried our best to fend them off, but our best wasn’t good enough.”

Chongson said second place did not give him any satisfaction. “No amount of second-place finishes could have sufficed to ease the pain,” he said.