Blue Eagles Complete Grand Slam

Ryan Clarence Buenafe drilled the most important three-point basket in the UAAP Season 73 with less than 30 seconds left in the final quarter to seal the Blue Eagle’s date with history. The Ateneo Blue Eagles successfully pulled off a three-peat at the expense of the FEU Tamaraws and secured their rightful place in the elite class of universities having won a grand slam in the UAAP. The win gave the Blue Eagles their sixth (6th) Championship Trophy, half of which were delivered during the tenure of Coach Norman Augustus Black.


It was a different FEU team that came out of the locker room in Game 2 of the Finals. Armed with renewed fighting stance and shear determination, the Tamaraws shattered the Blue Eagle’s defense in the first quarter to post a 9-point margin 22-13 in the end. For a while there was silence in the gallery where the river of blue is flowing as shades of yellow and green floated in high heavens with their thundering cheer. But it soon came to an end. Ateneo regained composure in the second quarter to limit FEUs total quarter output to 9 points against the 17 of the Blue Eagles. The two teams were separated by a precarious one point lead at half-time for FEU.


The third quarter belonged to Ateneo but FEU made a gallant stand behind power forward Reil Cervantes and shooting forward Paul Joseph Sanga. Conspicuously missing from the offensive threat of FEU are MVP RR Garcia and Rookie Terence Romeo, had these two fire powers connected with their shots, FEU must have treated the 17,215 fans in attendance to a fireworks display inside the Big Dome. The lackluster offensive performance of these guards was even more aggravated by the absence of Coach Glen Capacio in the second half. Coach Glen was brought to the Medical City for precautionary check up after his blood pressure shot up. At the end of the gritty thirty (30) basketball minutes, the Blue Eagles posted a shaky 2 point margin from the Tamaraws.


The defining moment slowly unfolds in the fourth and final quarter. The game intensity was in full throttle entering the last ten minutes of Game 2. Players have to bleed to score a basket with each ball position tightly contested. This too is the period where men are separated from the boys, where will power is mightier than the pressure, where every second is precious than gold and where everyone were given a glimpse of future superstars in basketball. It is during this priceless moment that Emmanuel Monfort, Jeffrey Kirk Long and Ryan Clarence Buenafe revealed their true bloodline, one that traces its lineage back to the great grand Blue Eagle where Ateneo’s basketball program was sculpted.


The sights of Emmanuel Monfort, probably the smallest player in the UAAP at 5’7, towering over FEUs John Aldrech Ramos and Mark Anthony Bringas to grab a rebound, Kirk Long driving and going up and under for a reminiscent of the famous Michael Jordan signature move and Ryan Clarence Buanafe patiently working his rhythm inside the paint will forever be immortalized in the annals of the UAAP Finals. In the closing seconds when the game needs to find its fitting ending, the player shooting a forgettable five percent (5%) from the three-point country will drill the final dagger and end the blistering hope of an FEU comeback. Call it luck, but this guy knows not just how to play basketball but he too sported the biggest heart of them all.