IT is unprecedented for the Philippines to host a national basketball game behind closed doors as Team Pilipinas and Qatar play on Monday in the 2019 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers inside the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
That's the price the country has to pay for figuring in the brawl at Philippine Arena in July, with Fiba deciding to strip the country of its so-called “sixth man” for this home game.
However, this is not the first time for Philippine basketball.
San Beda and Ateneo were engaged in a heated rivalry in the 1970s which reached its boiling point in the 1977 NCAA Finals.
Steve Watson's 47-point explosion gave the Baby Dalupan-coached Blue Eagles a 105-99 Game One victory, but the Bonnie Carbonell-mentored Red Lions were able to equalize in Game Two with a 71-68 squeaker. That game, though, was marred with fan violence that forced the NCAA to stage the deciding Game Three behind closed doors at the Big Dome.
Without any fans in attendance, Jayvee Yango split his foul shots two separate times in the clutch to give San Beda a 77-75 win and the NCAA Season 54 title.
Ateneo withdrew from the NCAA to join the UAAP a year after.
Another closed door game was supposed to happen in 1980 between La Salle and Letran after fans from both teams figured in a full-blown melee at Rizal Memorial Coliseum which led to the NCAA calling the game off.
However, that game was no longer held as the Basketball Association of the Philippines decided to step in and cancel not just the game but the entire tournament altogether.
La Salle left the NCAA shortly afterwards.
Ateneo found itself in another closed door game two decades later, in the UAAP against UST in 1999.
Growling Tigers' Jeff Valeriano got into the head of then-Blue Eagles rookie Rich Alvarez triggering the melee at Cuneta Astrodome and forcing the league to postpone their second round game with only one quarter down.
The UAAP then opted to resume the game a week after, in a neutral venue, and chose the Lyceum Gym.
That didn't stop the Ateneo faithful from assembling outside and cheered their team on.
Ateneo, with Joe Lipa calling the shots, came away with the 62-60 victory over the Aric del Rosario-mentored UST side after Andrew Cruz scored the go-ahead putback from an Enrico Villanueva miss in the final minute.
The two teams would later on meet each other anew in the semifinals, this time without any incident.
UST, holding a twice-to-beat advantage as the two-seed, edged Ateneo, 75-74, before settling for a runner-up finish to eventual champion La Salle in three tightly-contested games.
There could still be a lot more and SPIN.ph welcomes any suggestions to the list.
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