BACK2BACK CHAMPS...

Animo San Beda.... Beat Baste!!

The Smart Araneta Coliseum was filled with fans and supporters of the Red Lions. I was there with my friends and my significant other in order to personally cheer for the Lions. It was my first time to cheer for my school in the Basketball Finals.

Back in my undergrad years, the UP Fighting Maroons are consistently the bottom-dwellers so it goes without saying that I never get a chance to see my own school in the final leg of a basketball tournament.

Going back, the Final series was a nail-biter. Game 1 was filled with cheap shots from Abueva all game long. However, the Lions pulled a 75-63 win over the Stags with Villahermosa igniting a 4th quarter run.|

Game 2 was slightly different, the Stags were more aggressive right from the get go. Coach Topex of Baste used a different strategy, he did not start NCAA MVP Abueva but it worked wonders for him giving the Stags an early 8 point lead with Pascual leading the charge.

However, when the 2nd half started, it was a David Semerad show, he was hitting jump shot after jump shot after jump shot. He was attacking the lanes even with Abueva guarding him. The Bedan Community breathed a sigh of relief when sharpshooter Ronald Pascual missed a wide open three in the dying seconds of the 4th quarter leaving the Final Score 55-53 giving Coach Frankie Lim his fourth championship in five seasons as a coach of the Lions.

It was a great feeling cheering for the your school, though I only knew a few cheers and yells. It was fun to taunt your rivals in the game knowing you got thousands of other supporters behind your back.

Dave Marcelo was hailed Finals MVP with the average of close to 9 ppg and 14 rpg.

One thing that I noticed from the Baste Community is the lack of crowd support because only a few Stags supporters went to Araneta Coliseum to cheer for them compared in the social networking site Twitter wherein they were all saying that they will give an all-out support for their team. Their attendance in the 2 games were an indication that they failed to give their all-out support.

To conclude, the 87th season was not as stellar like the 86th season but it produced the same result,
No SAM, No SU, No Problem...

#GoSanBedaFight