Bulldogs drag Tams to KO tiff

NATIONAL U’s Alfred Aroga (left) tries to stop a shot by FEU big man Anthony Hardgrove in yesterday’s game. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Thriving yet again in a do-or-die situation, National University made sure that the UAAP title series would end in a rubber match.

Troy Rosario got off to an explosive start as the Bulldogs zoomed to early double-digit leads then rode out every Far Eastern University rally to hack out a 62-47 victory yesterday at Smart Araneta Coliseum and forge a do-or-die clash Wednesday for the league’s men’s basketball championship.

Rosario unloaded 16 of his 19 points in the first half to power the Bulldogs to leads of as many as 16 points, 22-6, in Game 2 of the best-of-three title series that drew a mammoth crowd of 24,896, the biggest crowd ever in a basketball event at the Big Dome.

Aside from the early scoring splurge, the Bulldogs did what they vowed to do—tighten their game on the defensive end, which forced the Tamaraws to post the lowest score (47) and the lowest field goal percentage (27.87 percent) in a Finals game since 2003.

“We really focused on going back to our fundamentals, going back to our discipline in terms of our defense,” said NU coach Eric Altamirano after his Bulldogs survived their fourth knockout match of the season.

“That’s really all we could do. We felt that in Game 1 we did not do a good job defensively.”

The winner-take-all Game 3 is set at 3:30 p.m. at Mall of Asia Arena.

Rosario—who got sidelined by cramps for most of the second half in NU’s 70-75 Game 1 loss last Saturday—also had 14 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs’ dominance over the Tamaraws at the boards, 58-39.

“We missed shots because they forced us to miss shots,” said FEU coach Nash Racela. “They played a great defensive game.”

None of the NU players, though, landed in the league’s Mythical Team composed of season MVP Kiefer Ravena of Ateneo, La Salle’s Jeron Teng, FEU’s Mac Belo, Ateneo’s Chris Newsome and University of Santo Tomas’ Karim Abdul during the awarding ceremony prior to the game.

The scores:

NU 62—Rosario 19, Khobuntin 17, Alolino 12, Aroga 7, Alejandro 2, Diputado 2, Neypes 2, Javelona 1, Betayene 0, Perez 0.

FEU 47—Belo 17, Tolomia 15, Iñigo 7, Pogoy 4, Cruz 2, Jose 2, Tamsi 0, Dennison 0, Ru. Escoto 0, Hargrove 0, Denila 0, Lee Yu 0 Ugsang 0, Ri. Escoto 0, David 0.

Quarters: 18-6, 26-18, 43-30, 62-47.