Mad minute(s)
Ateneo 81 vs. UST 77
by rick olivares
The sweat dripped down Pido Jarencio’s face. He tried to hide the pained look on his face but was unsuccessful. He was never one to hide his emotions anyway. He wore them on his sleeve as a player for the University of Santo Tomas and later as a pro hoopster for that fabled Ginebra San Miguel squad. Now on his fifth year as head coach for his alma mater, he still could never hide them.
During his team’s second round match to Adamson, he cajoled, berated, encouraged, and pleaded with his team to eke out a win to give them a chance to make the Final Four. In the end, a painful loss in double overtime, Jarencio was drained. He bent over the Philsports Arena floor in anguish.
It wasn’t like that now inside the bowels of the Araneta Coliseum. He couldn’t exactly get mad. His team after all nearly pulled off a heist against the favored Ateneo Blue Eagles. But the 19-point lead – built on the combined 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 assists by Chris deChavez and Art dela Cruz -- was too big to overhaul and his Growling Tigers ran out of time. His players worked their darned best to give him a great present for his birthday. “Kung meron pang isang minuto sa amin na yun,” he said.
The mad minute. It’s a term that British soldiers coined about a century ago after trying to make as many shots from their (bolt action) rifles in a minute. The term has also come to mean “a quick period of frenetic activity.”
And that is a way of life for teams like UST and UE who play at a helter skelter pace and who utterly have no conscience when jacking up threes.
As for the Ateneo Blue Eagles, as brilliant as they can be most of the time, they are susceptible to their own definition of a “mad minute” when they turn the ball over one after the other while looking utterly clueless and helpless on defense.
They experienced that against La Salle in the first round and once more versus UE in the second round. Both incidentally led to losses. And during an agonizing stretch of three minutes and forty five seconds when nothing seemed to go right, the Growling Tigers poured in 17 points to Ateneo’s 10.
The media people who earlier left courtside to go get some shuteye inside the press room suddenly came trooping back out to get a first hand look at comeback of epic proportions.
Following a UST timeout with Ateneo on top 70-51, Jeric Teng scored on back-to-back drives that brought down the lead 70-56.
Although Emman Monfort answered with a triple of his own, the Tigers’ rally began with an unconventional four-point play by Clark Bautista. Then came the fusillade from almost every conceivable angle. “They started bombing us with three-pointers,” remarked a relieved Norman Black after the match. It’s going to be very difficult to defend a team that is going to shoot like that.”
After Bautista nailed a triple from the left corner pocket with 36.5 seconds left to bring them even closer at 80-77, Ateneo caught a break when Melo Afuang missed a put back and when Jeric Fortuna committed his fifth and last foul on Kirk Long in the dying seconds of the game. Long split his free throws to close out the scoring as Ateneo survived UST’s late charge for an 81-77 victory.
“We got the win,” added Black who was still happy that his charges were able to get the twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four. “But that doesn’t guarantee that we’re going to the Finals. It makes it a little easier but we have to earn it.”
The win effectively decided the top two seeds of the Final Four – FEU and Ateneo. What has yet to be decided heading into the final two playing days of the eliminations are the rankings. Theoretically, Ateneo still has a chance of piping FEU for the number slot (as they did last season) should they win in their upcoming second round encounter next Saturday. It’s the same for La Salle and Adamson who are both tied at third with identical 8-5 records. It’s a matter of picking their poison – the league-leading Tamaraws or the defending back-to-back champions.
At the start of the season, Jarencio made light of most pre-season prognosticators who tabbed UST to finish eighth in the UAAP. “Swerte dilaw at number eight ngayon ha,” he joked in a mock Chinese accent. True enough, the Tigers had their run and their moments. At 4-9 and with one match to play (versus NU), they will finish no lower than seventh place.
“We really wanted to win most especially for coach,” confided forward Chris Camus. “We just don’t have the height and experience to beat Ateneo.”
“Isa pang minuto,” threw in Jarencio. “Isa pang minuto.”
Ateneo 81 – Salamat 18, deChavez 12, Chua 11, Long 10, dela Cruz 6, Buenafe 6, Monfort 6, Golla 5, Salva 3, Tiongson 2, Austria 2, Escueta 0
UST 77 – Teng 23, Bautista 16, Daquioag 10, Afuang 10, Mariano 8, Fortuna 6, Pe 4, Wong 0, Tinte 0, Marata 0, Mamaril 0, Lo 0, Marquez 0, Camus 0, Aytona 0
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