Back on Number 1. Indeed, the winning tradition of the Stags is back on track. After 6 years of not fighting for the crown, here are the Stags, with a bunch of stepping-up rookie players and a rookie coach in Ato Agustin, renews their assertion in Men's Basketball of the NCAA.
Nobody saw this Finals matchup coming, not even I. This writer thought that it will be a JRU-SBC Finals again, as things looked pretty bleak for the Stags as they lost 3 games in a row in a span of just one week. It seems that they started faltering when the games mattered the most during that time, however, looking back, it was a blessing in disguise for the Stags, as they experienced those setbacks where in they would be able to assert themselves and fight back to their winning ways, and this time, they pulled off 3 straight games in one week to win the NCAA Final Four and the Crown.
Game 1 was a closely fought contest, especially in the 4th quarter. where the Stags started faltering again as the Red Lions chimp-in that 8 pt lead and held the Stags to only 13 points in the 2nd half to force overtime. They were not executing their plays and turning the ball over a lot of times.
It seems that the Stags are into doom again. With Bambam Gamalinda of the Red Lions hitting back to back three's as the Red Lions took the roll at the start of overtime. However, the Stags held their composure and fought back, to force a second overtime. This time around, they maintained their composure and with Rookie Sensation Calvin Abueva hitting clutch free throws and getting 23 crucial rebounds for a 72-68 victory and a 1-0 series lead.
Heading into game 2, Coach Frankie Lim took some adjustments and was able to establish a lead into the 1st half and holding the Stags to only 28 points in the first half as the Red Lions scored 38 for a 10 point lead, along with a mammoth Red Lion crowd behind them expecting for a game 3. More importantly for the Lions, they held Jimbo Aquino to a single point and made Abueva to commit 3 fouls and limit his production. However, Gilbert Bulawan kept the Stags alive, as he made timely contributions with the two main man of the Stags not getting into the groove of the game.
But, the Stags will have none of it, as they started to run and forced turnovers, as they scored 26 points in the 3rd quarter and trimmed the lead to two, 56-54. Jimbo Aquino started to explode, hitting big shots and three pointers, as Abueva was benched the whole quarter due to foul trouble and with Coach Ato Agustin wanting to save Abueva for last.
Come the final canto, the Stags held the Red Lions without a field goal pretty much the whole quarter, and the Stags slowly started to build up the lead, with Jimbo Aquino hitting a timely three-pointer to give the Stags an 8-point lead with 5 minutes left into the ballgame. Things started to falter for the Red Lions this time, as they got into unforced turnovers, and with time on the Stags' side, the Lions pretty much sealed the deal on themselves, as the Lions kept fouling the Stags trying to keep their hopes alive, but they could not convert any field goal at all and this blew the final score to 76-61.
This stopped the 3-year dominance of this year's hosts, the San Beda Red Lions as the San Sebastian Stags finally captured the Men's Basketball Crown again since 2002, which ironically, the San Beda was also the host of that season. The graduating scorer of the Stags, Jimbo Aquino was named Finals MVP of the series, with coach Ato Agustin and his young boys taking their first crown. The Stags will be looking to defend their crown in 2010, in which they will be that season's host and try to break the curse of the host winning the NCAA Men's Basketball Crown.
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