Medina wins it for Eaglets; Lady Falcons cop title

Carlo Medina scored on a twisting lay-up with 15 seconds remaining as Ateneo down Adamson, 84-82, yesterday to clinch the 66th UAAP high school basketball crown at the Araneta Coliseum.

With the game tied at 82-all, the Blue Eaglets went to Medina, who drove past Ricky Balila and then suspended himself in air to defy the 6-foot-4 William Johnston and score the game-winner that completed Ateneo’s two-game sweep of the Baby Falcons.

Mark Intal preserved the victory with a crucial rebound off Gener Canuday’s miss at endgame.

"It’s a great feeling," said Ateneo coach Jamike Jarin, who won his first title as a coach. He won two previous ones as co-mentor with Sandy Arespacochaga.

The Baby Falcons actually had a chance to force an overtime but Canuday opted to go for the win but his shot from outside the arc bounced off the rim.

Ken Barrasco led the Blue Eaglets’ offensive attack in a nip-and-tuck battle as he fired 18 points while Intal and Paolo Dizon tossed in 17 and 13 points, respectively. Jose Reyes, the hero in Ateneo’s 80-78 win in Game One, banged in 12 points, including a clutch triple midway in the fourth.

Earlier, Adamson leaned on key baskets by rookie Merenciana Arayi as it edged University of the Philippines, 46-44, to cop its first women’s cage title in a decade.

Arayi, whose father is a Nigerian, pumped in all her eight points in the fourth quarter, including four in the final minute as the Lady Falcons likewise completed a two-game sweep of the Diliman-based cagerettes.

"Medyo nanggigil ang mga bata kaya medyo close ang laban ngayon kumpara nung Game One," said Adamson coach Emelia Vega, a member of the SEAG-bound RP team in Vietnam and a mainstay of the Adamson quintet which last won a UAAP title in 1993. The Lady Falcons thumped their rivals, 61-39, in the series’ opener Thursday. — Joey Villar