Dream Game 2012: the Green takes down the Blue

There’s more green and blue to go around.

Stars from UAAP rival teams Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles and De La Salle University Green Archers converged at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, Sunday, February 5. Blue vs. Green: Dream Game 2012 – a project of the Philippine Basketball Association, saw the Green Archers relive their glory days via a 117-104 win over the fancied Blue Eagles.

A relatively close game in the early goings, things turned sour for the Eagles in the latter part of the first quarter.  The Green Archers – led by Ryan Arana, Jvee Casio and Carlo Sharma fueled their way to a 13-3 run for a 14-point spread at the end of the first ten minutes.

The second and third periods produced the same result in favor of the Green Archers. Franz Pumaren – currently the head coach of the PBA Shopinas.com Clickers, celebrated his birthday and called the shots for the Green Archers.

With 3:40 left in the third, Petron’s Joseph Yeo sank a medium range bucket giving the Archers their biggest spread of 26 – 89-63.

The Eagles tried to rally back in the last four minutes of the game when they trimmed their deficit to just ten, 106-96 – behind the collective efforts of B-Meg’s JC Intal, Powerade’s Doug Kramer and Talk ‘N Text’s Larry Fonacier.

The Archers wanted the win badly and turned to the veteran Don Carlos Allado down the stretch.  Allado was the oldest baller from both lineups and not only stole the show when he “tebowed” on the court after a three point play – but he led all scorers as well.  He finished the game with 23 points.

The players did not only put on a good show for their fans and supporters but they helped raise funds for their chosen charity institution.  The game was held for the benefit of the Cancer and Hematology Center of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City.

Combo guard LA Tenorio paced the Eagles with 20 markers while Rico Villanueva added 19.

Jvee Casio – coming off a stellar performance in the recently concluded PBA All-Filipino Cup Finals led the DLSU lineup with Mac Cardona of Meralco, Don Allado of Barako Bull, Ryan Arana and TY Tang of Rain or Shine, Mike Cortez, Willy Wilson and Rico Maierhofer of Barangay Ginebra, Jerwin Gaco of B-Meg, Ren-ren Ritualo and JR Aquino of Air21 Express, Joseph Yeo and Carlo Sharma of Petron.

Larry Fonacier – the Finals Most Valuable Player last week when the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters bagged their second straight All-Filipino Cup title led the Blue Eagles with fellow Tropang Texters Japeth Aguilar, Rich Alvarez and Magnum Membrere. Also in the lineup were Nonoy Baclao of Petron, Paolo Bugia, Wesley Gonzales, Erik Salamat and LA Tenorio of the Alaska Aces, JC Intal of B-Meg, Doug Kramer of Powerade and Rico Villanueva of Barangay Ginebra.  Ateneo’s head coach Norman Black was at the helm. – Rappler.com

Box Scores:

GREEN (117) – Allado 23, Cardona 20, Casio 13, Sharma 12, Arana 9, Maierhofer 9, Yeo 9, Ritualo 8, Cortez 8, Aquino 3, Gaco 3.
BLUE (104) – Tenorio 20, Villanueva 19, Aguilar 16, Fonacier 14, Intal 13, Kramer 7, Salamat 4, Baclao 4, Membrere 3, Alvarez 2, Bugia 2.

Quarter Scores: 34-20, 61-48, 94-75, 117-104