Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Winning in Defeat
*blog posted at http://carloricohermoso.net on September 9, 2006
In losing, they became winners. In defeat, there is dignity. That's what you may say about the Ateneo Blue Eagles who fell a good play short of scoring an upset victory over the UE Red Warriors.
It's a no-bearing game to begin with, except that this is a battle for pride. Curiously, this year's hosts UE has an advantage over Ateneo since the latter is coming off a hard-earned victory against the FEU Tamaraws last Thursday, hence a day of rest prior to this game (something very fishy *cough*). Ateneo's position at the top is well established as UE was handed down back-to-back defeats from the Adamson Falcons and the UP Fighting Maroons which relegated them to second place. In this game, it was all about Ateneo and UE's claim to supremacy over the other.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles had to overcome a lethargic 1st half marked by poor outside shooting and free throw shooting. They wouldn't just pound the ball inside and relied their luck on their ouside shooting. Too bad lady luck wasn't smiling at the Eagles. Meanwhile, UE's top-guns Marcy Arellano and Bonbon Custodio found their rhythm from the outside, and the UE guards were connecting on their lay-ups. UE's big men in Elmer Espiritu and Kelvin Gregorio were boxing out properly and were a threat to Ateneo's inside scoring. What kept Ateneo afloat were the successive technical fouls slapped on coach Dindo Pumaren (there was a foul at Escalona from our side, magugulang talaga boys mo), a stupid mockery by James Martinez on Zion Laterre (poetic justice), that stupid technical by Canizares for excessive complaining (Dindo Pumaren shouting at Canizares was a sight to behold), and a technical on Hans Thiele (wtf is wrong, Eric Salamat was just playing ball). Custodio's 6 turnovers and 15 by UE almost contributed to the Warrior's downfall.
The Eagles fell as big as 20 points down by the third quarter before Coach Norman Black used another of his "Black" magic tricks by putting in seldomly-used point-guard Eman Monfort. The heir to the "14" jersey number after 14 greats Enrico Villanueva (1997-2002) and Larry Fonacier (2003-2004) responded by hitting a trey which was enough to spark a rally by the Eagles to cut the deficit to from 20 points down to 12 by the end of the third quarter. His courage to drive in against UE's giants (and dish out an assist) earned him the Ateneo crowd's applause.
Again I stress that this is a no-bearing game and the Ateneo Eagles could have handed UE the win just to rest (as the saying goes, "A step backward, two steps forward"), but the Eagles have so much pride in them. Norman Black risked putting in his top stars JC Intal, Macky Escalona, Doug Kramer, and Chris Tiu along with Eman Monfort in the line of injury. The Ateneo defense (highlighted by Macky Escalona's block on Custodio and Kramer's block on Elmer Espiritu) gave JC Intal room to operate for two dunks - one which brought the deficit down to one 75-76 with 10s remaining following another Custodio turnover. Intal was the epitome of "never give up, never surrender" as he must have scored Ateneo's last seven points when the Blue and White were down by eight entering the last two minutes through a trey, "the" dunk, and a hard-work effort shot under the basket over Espiritu. Macky Escalona fouled Custodio and latter made up for all his boo-boos by scoring crucial freethrows to put the Warriors up by three, 75-78. Finally, Chris Tiu ran out of ammo on his trey as he fumbled his last second shot.
But in defeat, the whole of Ateneo crowd (including I), were in standing ovation for the Blue Eagles as if the Eagles won the game. No, it wasn't a sign of bitterness or denial. It was more of psychological edge over UE, that even if they won the game, they know in their hearts that Ateneo is a team that can come back from a 20 point deficit -- something that they aren't familiar with. The loss was a statement against the UE crowd - that even if they copied Ateneo, UST, and La Salle's cheers, they couldn't match Ateneo's "One Big Fight." The game showed how UE can be so cocky and aggressive (highlighted by Martinez's stupid facial on Laterre), that it really hides their insecurities.
In defeat, Intal and company won the hearts of the Ateneo faithful. After the game, Intal was still disappointed with the outcome -- you know he wanted to win the game badly. It was a good practice game, a warm-up for the final four, and finally a statement to UE -- you know Ateneo can get back at you guys.
In any case, it was a good game that UE played, highlighted by their tenacity in rebounds (55 as against 39), blocks (9 against 3), assists (17 as against Ateneo's 1o) and superior field goal (43% as against 32%) and free throw (78% against 67%) shooting.
Finally, the game was a mockery to the UE pep-squad themselves, who are fastly earning a reputation of copycats. I hope they'll come up with something original (their "Get That Ball" cheer's drum beat is almost the same as ours, their "Go UE, Beat Ateneo" is a ripoff of La Salle's "Beat Ateneo, Animo La Salle" cheer, plus their hand movements in a cheer were synonymous to UST's "Go USTe" hand movement). I think I'm going to make a poster "Copycats" next time UE and Ateneo face each other.
Go Ateneo, One Big Fight!
In losing, they became winners. In defeat, there is dignity. That's what you may say about the Ateneo Blue Eagles who fell a good play short of scoring an upset victory over the UE Red Warriors.
It's a no-bearing game to begin with, except that this is a battle for pride. Curiously, this year's hosts UE has an advantage over Ateneo since the latter is coming off a hard-earned victory against the FEU Tamaraws last Thursday, hence a day of rest prior to this game (something very fishy *cough*). Ateneo's position at the top is well established as UE was handed down back-to-back defeats from the Adamson Falcons and the UP Fighting Maroons which relegated them to second place. In this game, it was all about Ateneo and UE's claim to supremacy over the other.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles had to overcome a lethargic 1st half marked by poor outside shooting and free throw shooting. They wouldn't just pound the ball inside and relied their luck on their ouside shooting. Too bad lady luck wasn't smiling at the Eagles. Meanwhile, UE's top-guns Marcy Arellano and Bonbon Custodio found their rhythm from the outside, and the UE guards were connecting on their lay-ups. UE's big men in Elmer Espiritu and Kelvin Gregorio were boxing out properly and were a threat to Ateneo's inside scoring. What kept Ateneo afloat were the successive technical fouls slapped on coach Dindo Pumaren (there was a foul at Escalona from our side, magugulang talaga boys mo), a stupid mockery by James Martinez on Zion Laterre (poetic justice), that stupid technical by Canizares for excessive complaining (Dindo Pumaren shouting at Canizares was a sight to behold), and a technical on Hans Thiele (wtf is wrong, Eric Salamat was just playing ball). Custodio's 6 turnovers and 15 by UE almost contributed to the Warrior's downfall.
The Eagles fell as big as 20 points down by the third quarter before Coach Norman Black used another of his "Black" magic tricks by putting in seldomly-used point-guard Eman Monfort. The heir to the "14" jersey number after 14 greats Enrico Villanueva (1997-2002) and Larry Fonacier (2003-2004) responded by hitting a trey which was enough to spark a rally by the Eagles to cut the deficit to from 20 points down to 12 by the end of the third quarter. His courage to drive in against UE's giants (and dish out an assist) earned him the Ateneo crowd's applause.
Again I stress that this is a no-bearing game and the Ateneo Eagles could have handed UE the win just to rest (as the saying goes, "A step backward, two steps forward"), but the Eagles have so much pride in them. Norman Black risked putting in his top stars JC Intal, Macky Escalona, Doug Kramer, and Chris Tiu along with Eman Monfort in the line of injury. The Ateneo defense (highlighted by Macky Escalona's block on Custodio and Kramer's block on Elmer Espiritu) gave JC Intal room to operate for two dunks - one which brought the deficit down to one 75-76 with 10s remaining following another Custodio turnover. Intal was the epitome of "never give up, never surrender" as he must have scored Ateneo's last seven points when the Blue and White were down by eight entering the last two minutes through a trey, "the" dunk, and a hard-work effort shot under the basket over Espiritu. Macky Escalona fouled Custodio and latter made up for all his boo-boos by scoring crucial freethrows to put the Warriors up by three, 75-78. Finally, Chris Tiu ran out of ammo on his trey as he fumbled his last second shot.
But in defeat, the whole of Ateneo crowd (including I), were in standing ovation for the Blue Eagles as if the Eagles won the game. No, it wasn't a sign of bitterness or denial. It was more of psychological edge over UE, that even if they won the game, they know in their hearts that Ateneo is a team that can come back from a 20 point deficit -- something that they aren't familiar with. The loss was a statement against the UE crowd - that even if they copied Ateneo, UST, and La Salle's cheers, they couldn't match Ateneo's "One Big Fight." The game showed how UE can be so cocky and aggressive (highlighted by Martinez's stupid facial on Laterre), that it really hides their insecurities.
In defeat, Intal and company won the hearts of the Ateneo faithful. After the game, Intal was still disappointed with the outcome -- you know he wanted to win the game badly. It was a good practice game, a warm-up for the final four, and finally a statement to UE -- you know Ateneo can get back at you guys.
In any case, it was a good game that UE played, highlighted by their tenacity in rebounds (55 as against 39), blocks (9 against 3), assists (17 as against Ateneo's 1o) and superior field goal (43% as against 32%) and free throw (78% against 67%) shooting.
Finally, the game was a mockery to the UE pep-squad themselves, who are fastly earning a reputation of copycats. I hope they'll come up with something original (their "Get That Ball" cheer's drum beat is almost the same as ours, their "Go UE, Beat Ateneo" is a ripoff of La Salle's "Beat Ateneo, Animo La Salle" cheer, plus their hand movements in a cheer were synonymous to UST's "Go USTe" hand movement). I think I'm going to make a poster "Copycats" next time UE and Ateneo face each other.
Go Ateneo, One Big Fight!
