Blue Eagles battle Tigers for UAAP crown today

Game Thursday (Araneta Coliseum)

3:30 pm – Ateneo vs UST

AN already heated rivalry is expected to get even more tempestuous as the Ateneo Blue Eagles and the University of Sto. Tomas Growling Tigers go at each other’s throats once again in Game Two of the best-of-three Finals series in the 75th UAAP men’s basketball tournament today at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.

The Blue Eagles will be going all out to annex their fifth straight title while the Tigers will be aiming to send this series to a deciding Game Three set for Saturday. Ateneo though, want no such thing as they gun for a repeat of their, 83-78 win in Game One.

Senior forward, Nico Salva came up the biggest in that match as he scored a career-high 30 points, reminiscent of his stellar showing in last year’s finals wherein he bagged the Finals MVP award. But it was “The Phenom” Kiefer Ravena that sealed the win for the Eagles as his jumper with eight seconds remaining pushed their lead to five.

There were also several other heroes for the blue-and-white in that game, namely Ryan Buenafe and Juami Tiongson, whose makes pushed Ateneo’s lead to nine in the fourth period before UST rallied in the dying seconds.

Still, the win was not without criticism as UST head coach Pido Jarencio alleged that game officials were favoring the Eagles, in particular, head coach Norman Black.

“Do I need to talk in English in order to get a fair call? It’s up to them, I’m just saying the truth. We want consistency in the officiating. Let the players decide the outcome of the game,” said Jarencio in his comments immediately after the match.

The comments did not sit well with Black who responded, “The part about speaking English and that I’m American that’s why the referees are biased towards me, that’s uncalled for. It’s mean and totally unsportsmanlike.” /Correspondent Jonas Panerio