By Joey Villar (The Philippine Star)


Pari Llagas (middle) looks for a way out as he is guarded by Eagles Justin Shaun Chua (left) and Raymond Leonard Austria in Game Two last night at the Big Dome.


MANILA, Philippines - University of the East churned out a near-flawless game – a combination of its vaunted run-and-gun offense and a stifling defense – to shock Ateneo, 88-68, yesterday and force a winner-take-all match for this year’s UAAP men’s basketball crown at the packed Araneta Coliseum.

Elmer Espiritu exploded for 22 points he spiked with four triples while Pari Llagas outduelled Rabeh Al-Hussaini with an impressive 19-point performance as they sealed the Warriors’ first finals win since they beat the University of the Philippines Maroons for the crown 24 seasons ago.

“We’ll savor it for a while, it’s our first finals win for myself and for UE also for 20 something whatever years. It gives me shivers down my spine,” said UE coach Lawrence Chongson.

The sudden death is set Thursday.

“They delivered big time,” said Chongson, referring to Espiritu and Llagas, raring to end the Warrrios’ long title drought on their final year.

The Warriors also found a way to shackle the 6-7 Al-Hussaini, who was held to 18 points after averaging a little over 28 points in their last three meetings this season, which the Eagles all won.

“What went right is our defense,” said Chongson. “We went zone, we gambled on it, we gave them the outside shots, we clogged the middle.”

The Eagles indeed struggled in the face of the Warriors’ resolute defense, forced to take poor shot selections while missing a number of open shots from the three-point area where they frolicked in Game One.

It was UE’s first ever finals win over Ateneo after the latter swept the former in their only championship duel in the UAAP 22 years ago.

It was also the biggest winning margin in a championship since La Salle routed Far Eastern U, 72-47, in Game One of the 1998 finals, which the Archers won.

The victory was also the Warriors’ first over the Eagles spanning seven games after they edged the Eagles, 73-68, on Aug. 12 two seasons ago on their way to a historic sweep of the elimination round.

Chongson and the Warriors also dealt Ateneo mentor Norman Black his worst setback since he took over as coach of the Loyola-based school four years ago. Black’s previous worst was a 60-78 defeat to La Salle on July 10, 2005, in his first season.

“Finally, we also reduced the output of Rabeh because he seems to play his best against us so we really tried to contain him,” Chongson said.

Black said they failed to guard Espiritu and Llagas and relied too much on their outside shots instead of creating plays inside.

“We couldn’t defend them especially their big guys Espiritu and Llagas,” Black said. “We started relying too much on outside shooting, three-point shooting, stopped attacking their zone.

“We didn’t do a good job defending the basket on the defensive end. We shot the ball extremely well tonight from the two points. I just thought we settled for too many three-point shots tonight.

“I think we took 34 three-point shots, which is just way too many,” he said.

Black said he was surprised Espiritu and Llagas, who combined for five three-point shots, attacked them from behind the arc.

“I think their big guys hit five or six from the three-point line, that’s something they haven’t really done in the past so we have to do a better job of defending the three-point line against their big guys,” he said.

A commotion involving UE’s Raffy Reyes and Ateneo’s Ryan Buenafe and Eman Monfort ensued with two seconds left in the third quarter when Reyes took a bad fall as he jumped over Buenafe, who faked a three-point shot. Monfort then hit Reyes’ head with his knee as the latter shoved the Ateneo gunner.

However, no flagrant fouls were assessed in that play although Monfort was called for a flagrant foul for elbowing Espiritu later in the game.

With their back to the wall, the Warriors kept the game close in the first two quarters, battling the Eagles to nine deadlocks and five lead changes before UE outscored Ateneo in a blistering third quarter charge, 25-13, to take a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.

UAAP NOTES: The UAAP and ABS-CBN yesterday signed an agreement extending their partnership until March 2015. This means ABS-CBN’s UHL channel, Studio 23, will continue to air all basketball games from the elimination round to the Final Four. The new twist about the contract is that the UAAP best-of-three finals starting next year will now be aired on ABS-CBN’s free channel on Channel 2... UAAP individual awardees honored last night were Santo Tomas’ Dylan Ababou (MVP); Ababou, FEU’s Aldrech Ramos, Ateneo’s Rabeh Al-Hussaini and UE’s Paul Lee and Elmer Espiritu (Mythical Five), UST’s Jeric Teng (rookie of the year), FEU’s Terrence Romeo (juniors’ MVP) and Adamson’s Analyn Almasan (women).

The scores:

UE 88 – Espiritu 22, Llagas 19, Lee 13, Acuna 12, Lingganay 7, Reyes 6, Zamar 5, Duran 4, Tagarda 0, Bandaying 0.

Ateneo 68 – Al-Hussaini 18, Monfort 12, Reyes 11, Baclao 10, Austria 6, Salamat 4, Long 3, Chua 2, Buenafe 2, Sumalinog 0, Salva 0.

Quarterscores: 18-15; 38-40; 63-53; 88-68