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By Emil Noguera Correspondent
THE battle for the University
Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball title
begins Thursday when University of the East and De La Salle face
each other in Game 1 of their best-of-three championship series at
the Araneta Coliseum.
The Red Warriors, coming off a
three-week rest, take on the Green Archers at 3 p.m.
“This (Game 1) is totally
different. We want to take it slowly but surely dahil balewala ang
pinaghirapan namin sa elimination kung hindi rin namin makukuha ang
championship title,” said coach Dindo Pumaren, who brought UE to
its first finals after 17 years.
The Warriors gained an outright
finals berth after sweeping the double-round elimination by
trouncing La Salle, 92-84, last September 13.
“Hindi naman kami nabakante for
three weeks dahil hindi nagpabaya ang mga bata sa practice. Mas
matinding training ang ginawa namin and the intensity is still
there. Mas nakita ko sa kanila ‘yung passion and determination,”
added Pumaren, who will bank on Mark Borboran, Elmer Espiritu,
Kelvin Gregorio and shooting guards Marcy Arellano and James
Martinez.
La Salle ’s vast championship
experience is the biggest challenge UE must hurdle to finally put an
end to the latter’s title drought in more than two decades. UE’s
last title was in 1985 during the time of Allan Caidic and Jerry
Codiñera.
“La Salle has the experience
but we will come prepared in Game 1. We want to start strong to get
the momentum and dictate the tempo of the game. We need to play
solid defense because La Salle has a lot of shooters both inside and
outside,” added the younger Pumaren.
La Salle eliminated archrival
Ateneo de Manila University, 65-60, last Sunday to reach the finals
after serving a one-year suspension.
“It’s going to be a tough
series. We need to strive harder this time dahil mahaba ang naging
preparasyon nila going into Game 1 and for sure, nakita nila ang
galaw namin during our games in the stepladder phase,” said Franz,
who gave the Archers five titles since 1998.
“We lost to UE in the
eliminations that’s why we need to make some adjustments the
execution of our play. We need to be more aggressive,” added
Franz, who steered the Green Archers to four straight crowns.
Spearheading the Archers are
backcourt duo JV Casio and TY Tang, slotman Rico Maierhofer, Cholo
Villanueva and PJ Walsham.
Dindo leads 4-2 over Franz in
their head-to-head match up since taking over the coaching job from
Boysie Zamar in 2004.
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