THEY used to chase championships together. Now Willie Miller and Renren Ritualo will try to do it on their own separate ways.
Miller’s Letran Squires battle Ritualo’s La Salle Greenhills Greenies one last time in a sudden-death game for the last berth in the NCAA Season 100 juniors’ basketball finals.
READ: Perps back in the NCAA Juniors finals, LSGH stays alive vs Letran
The match is set at 2:30 p.m. at the FilOil EcoOil Centre, with the winner taking on first finalist University of Perpetual Help Junior Altas in the best-of-three title series starting on Friday.
The Greenies will welcome Ritualo and star player Guillian Quines back to the lineup after the two served out a one-game suspension during the Final Four for being ejected in their previous game against Emilio Aguinaldo College.
Yet despite their absence, the Greenies managed to pull off a thrilling 78-74 overtime win against the two-time defending champion and twice-to-beat Squires last Monday to forge the sudden-death match.
Now it’s either the Squires or Greenies who will advance. It’s either Miller or Ritualo.
“Magkasama kami niyan dati sa Tanduay,” said Miller of his La Salle Greenies counterpart, recalling the time they briefly played together with the old Tanduay franchise in the defunct Philippine Basketball League.
“Tapos nung sa TNT (sa PBA), pag-alis ko, dumating naman siya (Ritualo),” added the Letran rookie coach.
The Squires, bidding to become the first juniors team to win three straight titles since the San Beda Red Cubs made it seven in a row from 2009-2016, won’t be having top gun Jhuniel Dela Rama in the all-important game.
Dela Rama was meted a one-game suspension by the NCAA Management Committee for the flagrant foul penalty 2 he committed against La Salle’s Arle Podador in the fourth quarter of their previous outing.
Letran appealed the case, but the suspension stayed.
“We’ll just make do of what he have. Kung sino yung players namin sa loob, yun ang kailangan maglaro,” said Miller, the two-time PBA MVP and part of the league’s Greatest Players.
“Lima lang naman ang kailangan diyan, e,” added the product of Letran, who is also a deputy coach at Converge. “So i-spread lang natin yung rebounds, spread lang natin yung scoring ni Jhuniel sa other players.”
Meanwhile, the top seeded Junior Altas were the first to make the finals as they booted out the San Beda Red Cubs, 96-87, in the other Final Four pairing.
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