ANTIPOLO—University of the Philippines’ 82-71 victory over National University saw one of the most inspired performances in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament and also one that’s not so inspirational.
Seniors Paul Desiderio and Gelo Vito practically rescued the Fighting Maroons late until rookie David Murrell decided to showboat with the game already in UP’s bag.
Vito and Desiderio scored back-to-back baskets with less than two minutes remaining to give UP an 80-71 lead and everybody expected, including everyone from both teams, that Murrell would just dribble out the remaining time off the clock.
Murrell, however, decided to do a little something–a two-handed dunk–adding insult to injury.
The ill-timed slam drew the ire of the Bulldogs and even UP head coach Bo Perasol.
“I didn’t like that either, if I were in coach Jamike’s [Jarin] shoes I’d be angry too,” said Perasol Saturday at Ynares Center here. “I have to talk to him, there was no need for that.”
Murrell, though, said he meant no disrespect with his antics and that the dunk was just a normal thing he did when he was still in California in the United States.
“To be honest I just saw an opening and I wanted to dunk it, I didn’t mean to make it disrespectful or nothing,” said Murrell, who had eight points and four rebounds against the Bulldogs.
“I usually do that back home and it’s kind of normal back home but I guess out here they thought it was disrespectful,” added Murrell who played high school ball in Millikan High School.
UP rose to the fourth spot with a 6-5 record even before Murrell’s dunk, causing a few real time minutes of lull during the game as officials cooled off the Bulldogs.
Perasol said Murrell just wanted to find his groove since he spends most of his time cheering from UP’s bench, but the dunk was nonetheless uncalled for.
“For the longest time he’s been on the bench, he wanted to really show his stuff but regardless of the reason that was just wrong,” said Perasol. “I’m going to talk to him. He’ll learn, he’s a young guy and he’s got so much potential. He not only needs to respect the game, but he also needs to respect the opponents.”