TWENTY-FIVE is usually associated with Christmas and everything nice, but it looked more like Halloween for Kenneth Duremdes, Vince Hizon, and Marlou Aquino judging from their faces when 25 popped up at the Mall of Asia Arena's giant scoreboard on Wednesday.
That number represented the lowest score posted by a team in a UAAP men's basketball game in the modern era, according to UAAP statisticians. It got so bad in Adamson's 25-62 loss to National University that the Falcons made just nine field goals all game and failed to surpass the single biggest output (29) scored by one player, Ateneo's Kiefer Ravena, in one game this season.
If that 25 looked bad from where you sat, imagine how horrific it was to see for Adamson head coach Duremdes and his assistants Hizon and Aquino, who happen to be among the best players of their generation.
To give you an idea how badly it may have felt, here are some interesting numbers to consider:
In his most prolific conference as a pro, Duremdes averaged just a shade below 25 points (23.6 points per game) during the 2003 PBA All-Filipino Conference with Sta. Lucia Realty. That conference saw 'Captain Marbel' hit the 40-point mark in back-to-back games in the quarterfinals, including a career-high 42 against FedEx.
- Duremdes, a former PBA MVP and one of its 25 Greatest Players, scored 27 points or more in at least one game in 11 of his 13 seasons in the pro league.
- Hizon, who spent his best years with Ginebra, scored 29 points or more in at least one game in each of his first four seasons with the Robert Jaworski-era Gin Kings from 1995 to 1998.
- Aquino, whose son Matthew is in his rookie season with the Falcons, scored 25 points or more in eight games during his rookie season with Ginebra in 1996, including a stretch of six games.
- NU Bulldogs coach Eric Altamirano's career-high in the PBA happens to be 25 points, which he scored in Shell's 106-118 loss to Purefoods in the 1992 All-Filipino Conference - years before Duremdes, Aquino, and Hizon turned pro.
And here's one final piece of trivia: the Falcons' record 25 points won't feel as bad when you consider that 25 is the current losing streak of the University of the Philippines Maroons.
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