...1:57...

1st game: UP vs ADU
2nd game:DLSU vs UST

... got free tickets from my manager-uncle for 2 lower box seats and a patron seat... my other uncle got the patron seat for his kid, while my uncle from the other side of the family got the 2 lower box tix for P150 just so i could buy an upper a ticket for myself... stupid, it may seem, but 3 things made me do that: 1. i got it free, 2. my uncle who got the tix is from DLSU (UST &UP too,for that matter, but more of a DLSU fanatic) and 3. believe me, if you were in my shoes in the first game between the two schools, you'd even give those tickets away for free.. imagine, being a UST guy in the sea of green... che and i were keeping everything to ourselves.. kulang na lang maiutot namin cheer namin sa kakapigil...

anyway, back to the game we watched... UP lost anew, again failing miserably to finish and get that elusive first win (we have a game tomorrow, hopefully, season 68 won't happen again, when NU had just 1 win on the season, and that was against UST in the second round...)..

fastforward to UST-DLSU: back and forth game, with UST getting a good start, then DLSU getting good finishes.. after about the half, UST was playing catch-up basketball... fastforward 4th quarter: 1:57 to go, timeout UST... 12 points down to DLSU... cris asked me why we were losing... as i saw it, the game was going this way: casio and tang are doing great, DLSU is getting the defensive stops they need, the press is working out for them well, and even if the big men were no match for MVP Jervy Cruz, the guards such as casio, tang, and cholo are doing their jobs well... on the UST side: mirza is miserable, barely making a shot since the ADmU game, jervy is checked inside and can't get the ball off a pass, japs cuan still can't shoot an outside jumper (oh, that's not new...), anthony espiritu still can't make his 3's, turnovers are killing the tigers, and everytime jun cortez touches the ball, something bad happens... everybody on the UST side was down, from the players' body language to the crowd at hand... knowing coach pido's attitude, maybe he was the only one on the bench giving the players instructions not to give up... DLSU were kidding around laughing as if saying "manalo naman kayo sa min! baka umabot pa ng dekada yan!!" (note UST hasn't won over DLSU since game 1 of a finals back in the DLSU championship dynasty)... then kuya jed, an alumnus of our party and of the UST-YJ, shouted his throat out to the crowd, wanting to fire us up...

"kaya nananalo la salle, mei nagccheer para sa kanila! ginawa na ng mga players ang part nila, tayo rin, mag-cheer... baka sakali lang naman, mei oras pa naman eh..."

maybe out of respect, or maybe because of the fun of it, our line and those near him started to cheer when the buzzer sounded... UST makes a defensive stop, makes a basket... in one occassion, anthony espiritu looked like he travelled, then charged, but the call was a blocking foul with the basket counting... a three point play on an ugly play with a lucky break... but hey, i'm not complaining... its just the breaks of the game and the stupidity of the refs... about an 8point run by UST and DLSU still can't convert... less than a minute to go, UST setting up a play... after ball movement, the ball ends up at the hands of the miserable-shooting mirza wide open straight away from the basket at the 3-pt line... he fires up a three and the UST crowd goes wild... DLSU doesn't call a timeout, makes an inbound pass to tang near the corner 3 of the UST court, jun cortez suddenly appears to press him... tang swings an elbow, cortez falls: tang gets called for the offensive... UST ball, about 19 ticks left... they made a couple of shots that missed, but then when it mattered most, jun cortez got the looseball from inside the land of the giants who were fighting for it, and the fucker with an inconsistent outside shot ran a couple of steps away and took a turnaround jumper for the tie... and the fucker actually made it...UST crowd goes even wilder, DLSU could just sit... 6 ticks left, time for a final play for DLSU, casio was trapped, seemed to travel, seemed to be fouled, no call... made the pass to mangahas, who missed a good shot from the corner...

Overtime....

in this session, it was all UST... most notable could be mirza's free throws... there was a time when it was UST up by 3, mirza at the line... he missed both free throws... next time he was fouled on a similar scenario, this time with more pressure as it was only a 2-pt game, and making both free throws could make it a 2-possession game... amazingly, he nails both to ice the game... i believe he also made a basket some time during that run... pabida....

best win of the season... and everything started with 1:57 remaining...

"believe".=D