Saturday Basketball Madness \m/

Thank You Lord for suspending the classes this Saturday <3 basketball="basketball" day.="day." fun="fun" games="games" it="it" nbsp="nbsp" p="p" s="s" the="the" to="to" watch="watch" whole="whole">

2PM was the start of my basketball madness this day. It was a double-header game (as usual, especially on week-ends), the first game is the University of the East and the Adamson University match up. I wasn't able to watch the start of the game because I zapped the channel (hihi). But I zipped it back to UAAP because other shows were as boring as a Monday afternoon.

Anyways, I always root for the underdogs (I don't even know the reason why) and this game was actually a battle of the underdogs. The two squads were under the game standings, 6th and 7th place respectively. At the end of the first half, the Adamson showed the intensity that they had last conference. And maybe, the reason why the Warriors had a bad start in the ball game, is because the Falcons started their rally strong. Pananaw ko lang naman 'yun :) Adamson ended the first half carrying a 14-point lead. 28-14

In the start of second half, Adamson was really unstoppable. They were shooting from the downtown country with confidence. Though there are parts in which the UE squad was trying to make a run but the 3-point shooting of the Falcons made a significant difference in this match-up. The Falcons were able to shoot 13 3-point shots out of 24 attempts and the assist also helped the team to get it's third win of the season.

89-69

Well, this was the main event of the double-header this Saturday. The match-up against the number 1 seed, Ateneo De Manila University and the number 3 seed, University of Sto. Tomas. In the first round of the 75th season, exactly 58 days ago, the Tigers made the whole UAAP community amazed by how they won that game. They were under 15-point the at half but the returning Aljon Mariano saved the day for the Tigers. His 9 consecutive points at the 3rd quarter gained the confidence of his other team-mates and simply won the game, with only 1 point. 

But this is a different story, I am a UST fan except when they are against FEU (Opkors) and I expected that they will make it. At the start of the first quarter, the UST outscored the Blue Eagles but in the second quarter the Ateneo was slowly getting their kind of game and ended the half with 33 to 30. 

It was huge upset for the Tigers entering the 3rd quarter, the Blue Eagles got the lead after the 4-point play of Oping Sumalinog and the Eagles started to make baskets and outscored the Tigers to 9 points at the end of the 3rd quarter. 52-43 BUT, the UST wow-ed the crowd in adjusting to the playing style of the ADMU. They were getting steals and shooting inside the paint and in the crucial last minute of the game, the two teams were tied at 63. Mariano only made 1 out of two from the free throw area and get again the lead back to the Tigers, 64-63 but Tiongson scored two points from a long jumper that reclaim their lead to 65-64. And the rest is history. 

I must say that at the last minute of the ball-game the defense of the Eagles is the reason why they won the victory over the Growling Tigers. Maybe the last attempt of Mariano, shooting a three in that kind of position was not his best decision but what the others are saying nga, bilog ang bola. I'm sure that they are in the final four spot and maybe in the finals. Nobody knows as of now, let's just wait for the semis next next week. So excited for it! :)

I also watched the game of Phil-Lebanon at the FIBA Asia Cup this night. And we won over the depending Champions, yehey! Though, we're suffering from low 3-point shooting percentage at least they made a way to claim that victory. Go Gilas Pilipinas!