The Philippine Online Chronicles

As 2011 draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at some of the news makers of the year that has passed. In this edition, we take a look back at the two college basketball teams that left their mark in the Philippine sports scene.

Two bitter old rivals, dominating their respective collegiate conferences for yet another year - the story doesn’t get old when you already have a great long-term program in play combined with talent (and a very stable financial backer at that).
That’s the story of Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and San Beda College (SBC), as they continued their romp through the college basketball ranks of the most storied collegiate conferences, the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) respectively, during this calendar year.

Blue Eagles: Flying High in “Four-peat”
It may have been downright boring at times to see the high-flying Blue Eagles dominate the competition this year, but with the acquisition of prized talents Kiefer Ravena and Greg Slaughter, they were virtually unstoppable.
Thirteen games into the season, and the Blue Machine of Loyola Heights proved to be hard to match. Almost all of their games were won by double digits and each of the players in the system knew their role in the team and delivered.
Unfortunately, the second-running Adamson University (AdU) had other ideas during the Eagles’ final elimination round assignment, flubbing the Hail Mary squad’s unblemished record and denying them an automatic spot in the Finals where they were to enjoy an automatic 1-0 lead in a virtual best-of-five title showdown.
But as we know, the Katipunan boys narrowly edged a feisty University of Santo Tomas (UST) in their half of the Final Four, then swept their way to the crown against Far Eastern University (FEU), claiming their seventh UAAP men’s hoops crown overall and their fourth consecutive title.
Ravena, the highly touted recruit from the juniors ranks of Ateneo, wound up with the Rookie of the Year plum with averages of 13.1 points, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game in the double-round eliminations. On the other hand, his front court tandem Slaughter led the team with 13.3 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per contest in all 14 starts to wind up second to Bobby Ray Parks of National University (NU) in the Most Valuable Player race.
In the two-game sweep of the Tamaraws, Nico Salva shined through and was named the Finals series’ Most Valuable Player. The former San Beda Red Cub averaged 19.5 points on 79 percent field goal shooting during the best-of-three affair.

To be continued.

Image taken from GonchoA on Flickr. Some rights reserved.