Ateneo, a win away from bagging its first UAAP crown in six years, will have three more reasons to celebrate with another victory against La Salle tomorrow.
The league will officially fete Eagles Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Chris Tiu and Ryan Buenafe as three of the best performers in Season 71 in tomorrow’s awarding rites in Game 2 of the UAAP finals at the Araneta Coliseum.
The 6-6 Al-Hussaini, a Fil-Kuwaiti, is this year’s Most Valuable Player, Tiu a member of the Mythical First Team and Buenafe the Rookie of the Year.
“Yes,” said Ateneo board representative Ricky Palou when asked by The STAR if Al-Hussaini has clinched the league’s highest individual plum.
“I got the list of all awardees, and (Ryan) Buenafe is Rookie of the Year.”
Last year’s MVP Jervy Cruz of University of Santo Tomas and La Salle’s JV Casio and Rico Maeirhofer will join Al-Hussaini and Tiu in the dream first team cast.
“Imagine Al-Hussaini, Cruz, Maierhofer, Tiu and Casio together, that’s a dream team ,” Palou said.
Marichu Bacaro of UST and Mark Juruena of Adamson, meanwhile, will be named MVPs in the women’s and juniors’ divisions, respectively.
Studio 23, a UHL channel of television giant ABS-CBN which telecasts the UAAP and NCAA games, will also fete several others on its own, including Al-Hussaini (Most Improved Player) and Nonoy Baclao, also of Ateneo, (Defensive Player of the Year).
Studio 23 will also honor Tiu with a special citation and an all-Rookie team composed of Buenafe, Ateneo’s Nicolas Salva, La Salle’s LA Revilla and Joshua Webb and UST’s Clark Bautista.