David fells Goliath in UAAP's big upset

MANILA, Philippines - University of the Philippines, dishing out its best against an Ateneo team playing its worst, pulled off a king-size 68-58 victory -- its first in five years - in a Sunday shocker in the UAAP seniors basketball tournament at the Philsports Arena.

The Fighting Maroons smothered the defending champions with a game-long brilliance to nail their first win of the season and first over the Blue Eagles since 2004.

Veterans Mark Lopez and Woody Co came away with 15 points each, scoring the bulk in the second half as the Maroons finally broke through after three straight losses.

It was also the Maroons’ first victory over the Eagles in eight games since the former shocked the latter, 74-69, on Sept. 2, 2004.

Ateneo coach Norman Black also took his first loss to UP since he took over the coaching reins from Joel Banal four years ago.

The Eagles, led by reigning MVP Rabeh Al-Hussaini’s 17 points, absorbed their first loss in four starts, enabling the Far Eastern U Tams and the University of Santo Tomas Tigers to gain a piece of the lead.

“We felt like champions,” said an ecstatic UP coach Aboy Castro, who whopped it up with the rest of the Maroons at center-court after claiming what could probably be the biggest upset of the tournament.

“It was like David and Goliath,” said Castro. “That’s what we actually talked about in the dugout. Our resident pastor Morian Gingerich gave us a neat lesson on David and Goliath and I think it was very apt for today’s (yesterday’s) result.”

The victory also brought to mind UP’s 1986 winning season.

Knocking down off-balanced, shot-clock beating triples and perimeter shots and pouncing on the Eagles’ erratic play, the Maroons held their fancied, fellow Katipunan-based rivals at bay in the fourth quarter to fashion out the victory.

Down 29-35 at the break, the Maroons went to Alvin Padilla and Carlo Gomez in whipping up a big third quarter storm to grab a 46-41 lead going into the final period.

The 6-7 Al-Hussaini tried to spark a rally by pumping in 10 points but failed to draw support from the rest of the Eagles.

UP thus held Ateneo to its lowest output since the latter fell to FEU, 55-65, on July 21 four seasons ago.

The Maroons also shot superbly from the field in the fourth quarter, making eight of nine shots while the Eagles sputtered as they missed 10 of their 15 attempts.

Earlier, last year’s runner-up La Salle made key stops in overtime as it survived Adamson, 64-63, to post its second straight win after back-to-back setbacks.