Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
It was like a surprise ending to a motivational movie.
University of the Philippines, which was in its first finals series since 1986, was hitting punch after punch with Ateneo in Game 1 of the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball finals Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena.
Like Adonis Creed going toe to toe with Ricky Conlan in the latter rounds of their fictional fight, everything was going right for the Fighting Maroons against the defending champion Blue Eagles.
And just like how Conlan emerged with a decision victory in the end, the Blue Eagles were able to go out with the 88-79 victory.
The only difference was the way it ended with Creed landing the final punch of the fight that knocked down Conlan, it was Ateneo’s Matt Nieto who got to deliver the final haymaker.
Nieto capped off Ateneo’s 14-2 run late in the game to take an 87-73 lead with 2:07 left to play, a disappointing finish to an otherwise inspirational run the Fighting Maroons gave throughout the contest.
Still it was a lesson Bo Perasol and the rest of the Fighting Maroons have to learn in order to beat Ateneo—a team that owns nine titles in the UAAP.
“It’s a lesson we have to learn and we need to understand also that if we had done this sort of performance we could probably give them [the Blue Eagles] a tougher game and we could probably have won,” said Perasol.
Still, it can be considered as a moral booster for the Fighting Maroons who were able to gut it out with Ateneo until the final moments since it was a common knowledge that the Blue Eagles had supreme advantages over UP.
Ateneo represented the Philippines in the last Jones Cup and topped the Season 81 ladder with a 12-2 record while UP struggled in the early part of the competition, even going 3-5 in its first eight games.
There’s also the disparity in terms of titles with Ateneo owning nine and UP with two—the first one in 1939 and the second one in 1986.
“For a first-timer in the finals, I have to appreciate the kind of effort my boys have shown and if there’s one take away about it that it’s possible we can beat Ateneo,” said Perasol.
There’s still a chance for UP to take the title, if it can win in Game 2 and force a Game 3, and that could very well be the fitting end to its own movie.
“We can bring what happened in this game to the next few days. With a little tweaking and probably a little rest my team could give Ateneo its money’s worth. I’m positive of our chances.”