GREEN REPEATS OVER BLUE
IT was supposed to be a revenge game, but in the end, the Green Team once again had the last laugh.
With Don Allado and Mac Cardona once again leading the way, the former La Salle dribblers escaped with a 111-108 win over the Blue Team Sunday night in the PBA Dream Game 2: The Revenge at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Allado hit the go-ahead jumper with 40.4 seconds left that broke the last tie at 108 and after a miss by Magnum Membrere from three-point range, Cardona split his charities with 3.9 seconds left for what turned out to be the final count.
With the former Ateneans already out of timeouts, Chris Tiu tried a desperation heave that went over the top, allowing the Green Team to breathe easy at the buzzer.
“I should give credit to my players. They wanted to win,” said Green Team coach Franz Pumaren, who also guided his boys to a 117-104 win over the Blue Team in their previous Dream Game held in February 2012 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Cardona was chosen as the Papa John’s Pizza Most Valuable Player after finishing with 29 points on 11-for-24 shooting from the field, including three triples.
Allado, who was the MVP of last year’s game, added a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Tiu led the losing Eagles with 29 markers while Rabeh Al-Hussaini tallied 26 points and seven boards.
Despite the former Archers having a deeper bench, the game was very close in the fourth quarter where both teams battled to 106 and 108-all standoffs before Allado and Cardona took over in the clutch.
Jayvee Casio, who was in uniform, did not see action until the final 3.9 seconds as he was resting from his injuries that he suffered in the last PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals where he led Alaska to a 3-0 sweep over Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
“I understood Jayvee’s situation. The fans wanted to see him play so I finally decided to use him,” Pumaren added.
Casio earlier said before the game that he would not play so that he would rest his injuries while giving his former teammates moral support.
On the other side, Blue Team coach Sandy Arespacochaga praised his players for putting up a good fight despite being depleted.
“We were very happy. We wanted to win. Every time it’s an Ateneo-La Salle game, both teams come out and fight. Sayang but we gave the fans a good game,” said Arespacochaga, a former assistant coach of the Eagles under Norman Black.
The Ateneans played minus Gilas Pilipinas regulars LA Tenorio, Larry Fonacier and Japeth Aguilar, who flew to Lithuania late Sunday night for their two-week training camp.
Enrico Villanueva was resting from an injury while Doug Kramer could not make it due to other pressing commitments.
The scores:
PBA GREEN 111 – Cardona 29, Arana 21, Sharma 14, Allado 11, Gaco 9, Maierhofer 7, Cortez 6, Tang 5, Atkins 2, Ritualo 0, Casio 0.
PBA BLUE 108 – Tiu 29, Al-Hussaini 26, Gonzales 13, Membrere 10, Intal 9, Baclao 6, Alvarez 6, Monfort 5, Bugia 4.
Quarters: 27-28; 59-57; 87-79; 111-108.
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
