The Blue Eaglets were already up, 87-73, at that point. Command and control were on their side, and, quite literally, returning the Juniors crown to Loyola Heights was all just a matter of time.
All season long, the prize that the Blues have worked so hard to achieve was finally not only within reach, but practically ensured.
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| Eaglets win!!! |
The road to this moment, however, was not easy. Oh, far from it.
The day after losing in Game 1 to the revitalized NU Bullpups, Ateneo’s Mike Nieto, Matt Nieto, and Jolo Mendoza had a workout and were treated to breakfast by no less than King Eagle himself Kiefer Ravena. Ravena offered the fruits of his past title romps to the Eaglets’ Big Three. No doubt he shared a word or two about his own experience losing Game 1 in 2010 after sweeping the elims.
Here and now in Game 3, the Nietos and Mendoza, just like Kiefer and his team did four seasons ago, didn’t let their golden chance slip away.
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| Ateneo's Big Three! |
Like the first two games of the Finals, Ateneo started a little slow in this one, falling behind, 12-5, in the first five minutes of play. The ghosts of Game 1 seemed to reprise their roles here. The Eaglets were playing a little too tight, they were settling for lower percentage shots again, and, as has been the case in nearly every single NU game this season, they were being grossly outrebounded.
In the final three minutes of the quarter, however, the Eaglets finally rediscovered the aggression that helped them get over the hump in Game 2. Matt, Mike, and super sub Gian Mamuyac put a lot of pressure on the Bullpups, forcing them to lapse into several errors. Ateneo capitalized, going on a 9-1 spurt to end the period and take the lead for the first time, 22-21.
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| Gian Mamuyac and Shaun Ildefonso try to foil Philip Manalang's drive. |
It was a good sign for the Eaglets. If they could continue playing on attack mode, they should be in good shape, but they had to find a way to counter NU’s overwhelming advantage on the glass. At this juncture, coach Jeff Napa’s wards were already ahead in the battle of the boards, 13-6.
Things continued to be close in the second stanza, with graduating guard Jordan Sta. Ana keying NU’s offense. All season long, the fiery recruit from College of San Benildo in Rizal has struggled a bit against Ateneo, but he came to fore here, scoring a total of 8 points in the first half. Together with fellow wingman John Lloyd Clemente, who still has one playing year left in the Juniors, NU kept in-step with the Eaglets till the five-minute mark of the quarter and the score tied at 32-all.
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| Jordan Sta. Ana proved to be a thorn in Ateneo's side in Game 3. |
And then, like a dam bursting, Ateneo flipped a switch and went on a tear, riding the hot hand of shooting star Mendoza.
Jolo, the third-year sniper who was the leading scorer of the Batang Gilas U17 team that played in the 2014 FIBA U17 World Cup, was shackled in the first ten minutes of this game, managing to find the bottom of the net only once in six tries. He had always struggled a bit against NU’s tough-as-nailz D, and, by early indications, it looked like it would be a long afternoon for him.
As things would turn out, though, he was due for a big one. A really big one. With a variety of moves and a flurry of activity, Mendoza scored the next 10 points of Ateneo, successfully putting a bit of separation from the Bullpups, 42-34, with a little more than three minutes to go.
It was the breathing room the Eaglets needed and would even build upon.
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| Jolo Mendoza gave Ateneo some breathing room in the second quarter. |
Big Mike rifled in his first three of the game to erect the match’s first double-digit spread, 45-34, before Jolo, Matt, and graduating three-point specialist Marc Salandanan ended the quarter with a 7-0 run to give the top-seeded Katipunan quintet a seemingly insurmountable 52-34 edge at the half.
With the Ateneo Drumline regaling the crowd, it was apparent that the Loyola faithful could already smell the title. It was, after all, an 18-point lead for the team that had only tasted defeat once in the last sixteen encounters. They were the favorites. They had three of the top six players in the league.
Oh, but NU wasn’t the defending champion for nothing. No way they would just roll over and surrender their crown on a silver platter. Like a rabid canine cornered in a yard, the Bullpups rallied to open the second half. Behind the efforts of Philip Manalang, Justin Baltazar, and man-mountain Mark Dyke, NU outscored Ateneo, 15-3, in the first six minutes of the third canto. All of a sudden, the mighty Ateneo lead, which stood at 19 points, 55-36, early in the period, seemed fragile as glass.
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| Mark Dyke came alive early in the third quarter. |
NU was humming, and since they were still controlling the boards with impunity, the Bullpups probably felt it was their opportunity to turn the tables on the Eaglets.
Coach Joe Silva’s supporting cast, however, had other plans.
Early in the school-year before the Juniors wars began, I dropped by one of the team’s practices in the FCL Gym along Xavierville Avenue, and there was one thing coach Joe told me during that visit that really stuck.
“I think we have the deepest bench in the league.”
For the entire season, I’d been waiting for a moment that would really bring those words by coach Joe to life, and, finally, I found it here in Game 3.
With NU breathing down the Eaglets’ necks and the Ateneo fans trembling in anxiety, it was the supporting cast that stepped up with a string of clutch plays, keeping the Bullpups at bay for the next ten minutes that bridged the third and fourth quarters.
With under 4 minutes to go in the third, Salandanan found himself momentarily open on the right wing. Never one to shy away from an open three, the recruit from Thomas Starking Middle School in Los Angeles, drilled a long tom to bring the lead back to nine points, 58-49.
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| Marc Salandanan came up huge in his last game as an Eaglet. |
NU would continue to put a lot of pressure on the Eaglets, but superb quarterbacking by graduating playmaker Brix Ramos helped stem the tide. He scored 4 straight points late in the third to peg Ateneo’s lead at 64-51.
The Bullpups relentlessly tried to get back in it, counting on the derring-do of Manalang and second-generation player Dave Camaso to end the period strong and trim the deficit anew, 65-57.
At the start of the final frame, neither team could really get something going until long-limbed third-year defensive wiz Gian Mamuyac came up with the interception-of-the-year against Dyke and was consequently fouled on the way to the basket. He hit two freebies and would score on a put-back again a few minutes later to give the Blues a sizable spread, 72-62, with under 7 minutes left. Mamuyac, Salandanan, Ramos, along with great defensive stands from Shaun Ildefonso, Jossier Hassan, and BJ Andrade, fueled the efforts of the Eaglets’ supporting cast.
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| Brix Ramos stepped up with steady playmaking. |
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| Gian Mamuyac's long limbs gave NU a lot of fits. |
As valuable as their contributions were, though, it was clear that the only way Ateneo could really put NU away was with the Big Three.
On the heels of a string of Ateneo misses, the Bullpups last cut the gap down to as low as five points, 74-69, but they shot themselves on the foot soon after.
After Jolo extended the Blue Eaglet advantage, 76-69, athletic third-year guard Enzo Joson blocked 6’5 Justin Baltazar with under 5 minutes to go, and Matt Nieto grabbed the loose ball. He outran everyone else and looked primed for an easy transition basket when substitute guard Daniel Atienza sent Nieto crashing hard to the floor and with some unnecessary roughness to boot.
The refs whistled Clemente for a shooting foul and Atienza for a subsequent technical foul, which gifted Ateneo with four free throws and ball possession. That sequence, in effect, killed all of NU’s momentum. Consequently, Atienza was benched the rest of the way and received a tongue-lashing from the Bullpups' coaching staff.
Nieto, who missed just one free throw out of 17 the entire game, made all four charities to, once again, give Ateneo a double-digit lead, 80-69. He misfired on the ensuing possession, but made up for it a few plays later with a booming triple that gave the Blues a commanding 83-69 lead, under 4 minutes to go.
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| Proving he had ice in his veins, Matt Nieto drilled in 16 of his 17 free throws. |
At that point, NU’s body language betrayed their despair. They knew that, after sweeping the entire field in Season 76, they just weren’t good enough to defend the crown this year.
Fittingly enough, Jolo, Mike, and Matt scored the last 7 points of the season for Ateneo before getting subbed out to enjoy the applause and appreciation of the Ateneo fans.
Final score: 90-73.
The title is back in Loyola Heights.
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| The NU Bullpups fell short of getting back-to-back titles. |
Decades down the line, this will be a great tale for the Nietos, Jolo, and their teammates, but, perhaps, in a very special way, more so for coach Joe Silva.
After Jamike Jarin left the Blue Eaglets’ roost in 2010, at the end of their own three-peat and at the same time that Kiefer, Von Pessumal, and Pao Romero moved on, the coaching reigns of the Juniors program were left in the hands of Silva.
Silva himself was a member of the Eaglets, part of the 1998 team that fell short of the title against the UST Tiger Cubs. He was teammates with storied players like BJ Manalo, Bajjie Del Rosario, Paolo Bugia, and Larry Fonacier (Manalo, Bugia, and Fonacier would all get drafted in the pros). This was a man who, as a player and head coach, had never won the UAAP Juniors title.
After seeing NU and FEU-FERN dominate proceedings in the past three seasons, and after all his personal tribulations (his mom passed during that span), finally, coach Joe got his due. This was a title well-deserved for a guy so underrated and so unheralded. Ranged against coach Napa, who had already won two Juniors titles (2011 and 2013), coach Joe was the clear underdog, but as great underdog stories go, his grit, heart, and will to win prevailed.
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| This was a well-deserved breakthrough title for coach Joe Silva, who labored under the tutelage of bemedaled HS coach Jamike Jarin in the mid-to-late 2000s |
The same could be said for Jolo Mendoza, who missed the Mythical Five cut by two stat points (Adamson’s Jaydee Tungcab was #5). He was asked many times about how he felt being the only member of Ateneo’s Big Three to not be in the top five, but his response was concise and clear.
“I just want to win the championship.”
Now he has, and, boy, was he awesome.
He scored 21 points in just 14 minutes in the first half. He ended the game with 30 markers to his name, connecting twice from rainbow territory, hitting 50% of his two-pointers, and shooting 8/9 from the line. Not bad for a guy who scored 19 points against Team USA in 2014.
Sure, Jolo is not in the Mythical Five, but he is a champion. And, well, winning Finals MVP was the perfect icing on the cake.
Not surprisingly, after this stellar performance on national TV, a lot of people have christened him the future of Philippine basketball.
How’s that for an accolade, right?
When the dust settled, the Eaglets gathered at mid-court, hopped, bobbed, and weaved, and then closed in on coach Joe to give him his first victory ride as UAAP champion coach.
The Big Three was celebrated. The supporting cast had their day in the spotlight. The crown is back in Ateneo.
The day was good.
As for next season, well, it’s still a long way away, but, with Jolo, Gian, Enzo, Shaun, BJ, and most of the team still intact (watch out for some guys coming up from the freshman batch!), I’m certain coach Joe has only one thing in mind: repeat.
#OBF
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| The Phenom and his protege. Too bad they won't get a chance to play together in the Seniors Division anymore. |
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| How's this for an awesome sight? Season MVP Mike Nieto goes all the way to the stands to find and hug his dad, Jett Nieto. This is what we all play for, right? Awesome. (image by Raddy Mabasa/Fabilioh) |
Unless otherwise specified, all images are by Mon Rubio/The Shaded Lane.
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