Stags weather slow start to survive an upset-conscious Altas

Stags weather slow start to survive an upset-conscious Altas

words by rick olivares pic by raddy mabasa

George Allen held up his index finger and thumb to indicate that his Perpetual Help Altas came within a hair’s breath of stealing a game from the San Sebastian Stags. “Konti na lang,” he shook his head. “Konti na lang.”

The Altas shook of the crushing loss to Mapua five days earlier as they lead for almost throughout the match against the Stags until they suffered a brain freeze and power shortage at the worst possible time.

For the defending NCAA Men’s Basketball champions, the Altas’ drought coincided with Calvin Abueva taking over the match from his unusually listless teammates.

His lay-up at the 4:17 mark of the 4^th Quarter gave the Stags a lead 65-63 they would not relinquish. Abueva actually had a quiet 13 points and 12 boards despite being hampered by foul trouble and the troublesome defense applied on him by Altas forward Justine Alano.

Alano’s lay-up with 1:25 left but Perpetual Help behind by a solitary point 70-69 but a botched lay-up by Mark Sumera (that was blocked by Stag Ian Sangalang), a charging foul by Allen, and a badly-missed trey by Jett Vidal finished off the luckless Altas who with the 73-69 loss fell to 0-2.

“We’re not going to have many chances like this,” bemoaned UPHDS coach Boris Aldeguer after the match. Still without bigmen Marlon Gomez and Paul Nuilan who Perpetual Help has appealed to the NCAA Board. “We should have won this.”

The Stags clobbered the Altas in nearly every statistical aspect of the game except in two key areas that allowed them to lead and even stick close: three point and free throw shooting.

Aldeguer’s squad made 9 of 28 trey attempts and 12 of 16 free throws. The former is a rather atrocious percentage of 32% but that isn’t as bad as San Sebastian’s 29% accuracy from LaLa land and 14-32 from the stripe for a poor 44%.

“Hindi ko alam kung complacent o overconfident yung mga bata.” wondered SSCR head coach Ato Agustin. “Nung fourth quarter na lang nagising.”

Ronald Pascual lead San Sebastian with 17 points but missed four consecutive free throws in the final minutes. He redeemed himself by grabbing a key offensive board. Pamboy Raymundo added 15 points.

Jett Vidal topscored for UPHDS with 14 points. Mark Sumera added 13 while Arnold Daganan added 10 points.

SSCR 79 – Pascual 17, Raymundo 15, Abueva 13, del Rio 9, Sangalang 6, Maconocido 5, Semira 3, Gorospe 3, Bulawan 2, Gatchalian 0

UPHDS 69 –Vidal 14, Sumera 13, Daganan 10, Allen 9, Ynion 8, Elorpe 6, Alano 6, Arboleda 3, Kintanar 0


Frankie Lim on San Beda's thrashing of Emilio Aguinaldo College: