FOR all the marbles. Winner-take-all. Game Three.
No matter how you shape it, it all boils down to one final duel and both La Salle and the University of the Philippines are motivated to snag this one final win to lift the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball crown.
READ: La Salle, UP fight over UAAP Season 87 title
Since the Final Four era began, this will only be the fourth Game Three for the Fighting Maroons, while this will be the ninth for the Green Archers.
However, history hasn’t really been that kind for both squads.
Fighting Maroons, bridesmaids, not brides
UP is 1-2, with its first win coming in Season 84 when it ended its 36-year title drought thanks to JD Cagulangan’s buzzer-beating winner to take the 72-69 overtime win against Ateneo.
The next two, however, both ended in heartbreaks for the Diliman side.
Ange Kouame towed the Blue Eagles to a 75-68 Game Three win to exact revenge on Malick Diouf and the Fighting Maroons in Season 85, before Kevin Quiambao helped La Salle take the 73-69 Game Three win in Season 86.
Green Archers' mixed bag
La Salle, on the other hand, is an even 4-4 in those deciders, with the aforementioned victory last year being their latest Game Three win.
The other three victories for the Taft side came in 2013, when Jeron Teng steered his team to a 71-69 overtime win over his brother Jeric’s University of Santo Tomas in the Season 76 title showdown; in 2001 when Renren Ritualo and Co. completed the four-peat with a 93-88 triumph over rival Ateneo to win Season 64; and in 1999, a 78-75 overtime thriller where Don Allado helped his side repeat at the expense of the Growling Tigers in Season 62.
The Green Archers’ four Game Three defeats did come at the hands of their rivals.
La Salle first suffered a deciding game setback way back in 1994 when UST took the slim 77-76 escape in Season 57 thanks to the heroics of Bal David, and got dealt the same fate a season after, this time a 67-64 loss to the Growling Tigers who then leaned on Chris Cantonjos and Estong Ballesteros in Season 58.
Seven years later, it was Ateneo’s turn to send the Green Archers home weeping with the trio of Larry Fonacier, Wesley Gonzales, and Enrico Villanueva delivering the 77-70 conquest and the Season 65 crown in 2002.
It would take 15 years before La Salle suffered another Game Three heartbreak after Thirdy Ravena powered Ateneo to an 88-86 decision to exact revenge against Ben Mbala in Season 80 back in 2017.
So, will JD Cagulangan, Quentin Millora-Brown, and Francis Lopez level UP’s Game Three record, or will Quiambao and Michael Phillips break the deadlock and tow La Salle back to a winning percentage in winner-take-all championship games?
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