How the first game was won

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

FINALLY the much-delayed and much-awaited UCAAP Inter-Collegiate Jimmy Fernandez Basketball Challenge best-of-three championship series battle between defending champions Lyceum Northwestern University Dukes and University of Pangasinan PHINMA Flames started last Thursday at DWAD gym. The boys of Dukes head coach Nanoy Duque prevailed, 88-77. Yes, a beautiful game, but what surprised me much was the big turnout of the crowd which I roughly estimated to be around 4,000. Honestly, this was the largest that I’d ever seen in this sports arena.

In fact hundreds more were unable to enter the venue due to its small capacity.  Most of the fans who came late ended up standing by the side corners of the gym for the whole duration of the match.  I felt the strong intensity of the game through the reaction of the crowd, majority of which were obviously students and fans of the Flames. Every time the boys of head coach Jay Ronquillo made three-point shot conversions, the fans unabashedly stood, cheered and roared!

It was a fast and furious start by the Dukes with its center Mariano Catabay pumping in nine points alone for the Dukes’ 22 points in the first quarter against 17 for the Flames. The Dukes piled up on the margin in the second period with the five-foot-eleven Mangaldan-native power-forward Aljick Aquino and Catabay doing the rampage to increase the Dukes’ lead to nine, 42-33.

The Dukes fumbled in the third quarter committing multiple errors with four double-dribble violations led by guard Llyod Quisay plus a technical infraction by Coach Duque.  Those gave the Flames the advantage, engineered by its power-forward Ariel Valdez who chipped in two back-to-back treys, a free throw and penetration shot. He was assisted by point-guard Rolly Bravo who contributed seven points and Joe Anthony Jacinto with four to tie the score to 61-61 all, much to the delight of the partisan Flames throng.

Dukes regained its rhythm in the fourth and final juncture and led by as many as 13 points, 82-69, with its center Rodcel Yanga dominating the board and the shaded lane with eight points, backed by Roxar Melendez with seven and Aquino with five. In fact when Ronquillo called a timeout with 3:56 still remaining, and the crowd knew that the 13-point lead was already insurmountable, they began to leave the venue, surmising that the match was already in the hands of the piercing Dukes. And they were right. The Flames were outflanked and outgunned in the first skirmish but promised to come back with a vengeance in the second encounter on November 16 at 2:00 p.m. slated this time at Dagupan People’s Astrodome, obviously to accommodate an expected big crowd.
“I’ll give the credit to my boys for the hard-work,” Duque humbly said. “Yes, when the score was tied in the third quarter, I told them to stop the enemy’s three-point shots and their penetrations through tight defenses. I also gave them a good full rotation of players with a man-to-man scheme and we’re successful. We got now the upper-hand and the momentum and hopefully we’ll win the second match,” Duque said confidently.

Dukes lone loss in the tournament was in the hands of the Flames, a heartbreaking two-point misfortune, 69-67, held last October 6 at Dagupan People’s Astrodome. I think Duque learned a big lesson from that debacle. He studied his opponents’ chemistry well. Yes, let’s watch the second hostility to know if there’s still a third meeting for the two, or the league will end on Monday.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” ROMANS 5: 12

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