BEFORE the 2013 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) basketball competitions become a distant past, here some highlights from Season 76.
National University earned Final Four berths in each of the three different divisions – Juniors, Men’s and Women’s – and sought to join the University of Santo Tomas (1994) as the only schools in league history to capture the title in all three roundball levels during the same season.
In the end, National University fell way short off its target. The SM Group-owned school annexed only the Juniors championship.
Another three-level Final Four participant, De La Salle University, grabbed both the men’s and women’s crowns, duplicating its previous feat from 1999 to 2001.
The NU Bullpups were crowned the high school titlists for the second time in three seasons as they finished with a perfect 16-0 record, including a 2-0 finals sweep of regular-season Juniors Most Valuable Player Ferdinand (Thirdy) Ravena III and the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eaglets.
A stepladder format for the Juniors playoffs ensued after NU automatically qualified for the best-of-three finals with a 14-game sweep of the double-round elimination phase.
Fourth seed Far Eastern University-Diliman, the 2012 UAAP titlist, eliminated third seed De La Salle Zobel (led by the league’s No. 1 scorer Henri Subido) to earn the right to face second-ranked Ateneo.
Though armed with a twice-to-beat advantage, the Blue Eaglets made short work of the Baby Tamaraws, posting a 69-64 decision to advance to the finals against NU.
NU owned a thrice-to-beat edge over Ateneo in the finals, enjoying an automatic 1-0 lead in what essentially is a best-of-five duel.
In the series opener, the Bullpups outlasted the Eaglets, 101-93, in overtime after putting together an 11-0 uprising in the final three minutes of regulation to force a five-minute extension.
Hubert Cani, a former national youth player, topscored for NU with 24 markers. Ateneo, which last won the Juniors diadem in 2010 behind a young Kiefer Ravena, got a game-high 30-point effort from Talk ‘N Text bench maestro Norman Black’s son Aaron and a triple-double (14 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists) from the graduating Ravena.
In the series clincher, Cani chalked up a team-best 25 points as the Bullpups bucked a 27-point, 13-rebound, six-assist performance by the 17-year-old Ravena to whip the Eaglets, 81-74, for their second Juniors crown in three seasons.
Cani was voted the Finals MVP. A year ago, FEU-Diliman (then powered by senior guard and two-time league MVP Jeri Pingoy, who recently completed the first of his two-year college residency at the Ateneo), defeated NU, 2-1, in the finals.
More on the UAAP men’s and women’s basketball competitions next time.