Sports Event Flashback : Its Green Archers Again Back to back 98-99

Sports Event Flashback : Its Green Archers Again Back to back 98-99
Second championship of four-peat (1998-2001)
Source : Sports Weekly Magazine/Scoreboard 1999 series ( Personal Collection of PBA Archives )

With the Green Archers drawing out their championship form in the crucial stages of the match, La Salle got away with a nailbiting 78-75 win over fierce rival Santo Tomas to retain the UAAP basketball title last Saturday at the fullhouse Cuneta Astrodome. Unlike the past finals appearance where La Salle would always fall short in endgame, this season, the boys of coach Franz Pumaren proved they are ready to slay the ghost of the past. Veteran playmaker Dino Aldeguer made the biggest play of the season for the Green Archers, sinking a three-point shot with regulation time winding down, aside from drawing a foul from Niño Gelig. His bonus free throw didn't drop but his triple was enough to send the game into overtime, 67-all, as the Growling Tigers failed to convert their last play. "I want to be remembered as the La Sallite who never gave up," said the 5'10" Aldeguer who raised his arms in jubilation after sinking the "Hail Mary" three-point basket. Don Carlos Allado and Florendo Ritualo, Jr. then each scored crucial baskets inside the final minute of the extension period, while Ronald Cuan split his charities off Gilbert Lao's fifth foul to give the Archers a seriesclinching 2-1 victory. The Growling Tigers had two golden chances to send he game into another extra five minutes, but veteran point guard Angelo Velasco

bungled a driving lay in, and later, a three-point attempt that sealed their doom. "This win is sweet and this also proves that we are capable of beating UST," said a jubilant La Salle coach Franz Pumaren. Pumaren's victory equalled his elder brother Dereck's achievement since the latter, now coaching the Purefoods Hotdogs in the PBA, steered the Raft-based quintet to the UAAP crown in the 1989 ad 1990 season. La Salle finished bridesmaid behind Santo Tomas three straight times, from 1994 to 1996. The Green Archers' fourth came in the 1997 season when the FEU Tamaraws gored their way to the UAAP championship. Last year, with Pumaren at the helm, replacing Jong Uichico, La Salle regrouped and finally nailed a title that ended its eight-year drought in the premiere college league in the country. Ritualo fired 22 points for La Salle, while Aldeguer, who is playing in his final season, chipped in 21. The Growling Tigers took Game One, 62-60, but the Green Archers came back in Game Two, 81-74.