Ynares Sports Arena: The Land of Cinderella Stories
Before the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the sporting scene in the Philippines, Pasig City’s Ynares Sports Arena was the motherland of young basketball stars looking to make waves through the PBA’s Developmental League. The league, composed mostly of independent commercial teams, and college clubs, was the beginning of the road for the majority of the players while for some, it was a prepping initiative for their collegiate campaign. Running for a little over a decade, the league originally intended for PBA cast-outs was a gem hidden just outside Capitol Commons along Shaw Boulevard.
In hindsight, the D-League was a minor league in a vast Philippine basketball landscape. Yet, the hardcourt fairy tales that emerged in the halls of the Ynares were something to behold as its regular spectators witnessed folktales unfold while the larger basketball community barely paid attention.
THE JAWBREAKING PIRATES
The rise of CJ Perez and the Lyceum of the Philippines in the basketball scene was truly a roller coaster ride.
Despite bowing down to the Robert Bolick-led San Beda Red Lions in the NCAA, the Lyceum of the Philippines University, backed by Zark’s Burger, entered the 2018 PBA D-League Aspirants Cup as the Jawbreakers. However, the billing wasn’t quite telling in their performance in the elimination round, finishing sixth with a 7–4 card.
But then, they flipped the switch.
Perez carried the Zark’s Burger-LPU past the twice-to-beat CEU Scorpions after uncorking 11 straight points in the fourth quarter to turn a once two-point disadvantage to a seven-point lead in the final two minutes to finish with 26 points. The win forced a rubber match, in which the Jawbreakers ultimately managed to escape and pulled off the upset as double-digit productions from JV and JC Marcelino, Mike Nzeusseu, and MJ Ayaay bucked a lackluster showing from Perez, who only scored eight.
From then on, the Jawbreakers were poised to take Cinderella strides to the top.
LPU survived a nip-and-tuck, overtime battle in Game 1 of the semifinals against Marinerong Pilipino, which was then bannered by the likes of Mike Ayonayon, Gab Banal, Alvin Pasaol, and Abu Tratter. Undeterred by Perez missing two potential game-sealing free throws in regulation, Zark’s made the right plays from both ends down the stretch to snatch the series opener with a three-point cushion.
Lyceum followed it up with the clincher as Perez and Ayaay joined forces for a 26–4 third quarter blast that rocked the Marinerong Pilipino to its knees. Perez’s 23/6/5, Ayaay’s 13 bench markers, and Nzeusseu’s 15 and nine rebounds flushed Ayonayon’s 31-point tally down the drain to advance to the championship series.
Interestingly, elimination round seedings were hardly a factor come playoff time as the fourth-seeded Che’Lu Bar and Grill-San Sebastian were also in the process of logging their own Cinderella story, conquering St.Clare, and top-seeded Adamson University in the process.
But the gritty Zark’s-LPU had other plans.
After dropping the first game of the best-of-three, the Jawbreakers finished their journey with a come-from-behind Game 3 win to clinch the D-League Aspirants Cup title in front of a jam-packed Ynares-Pasig crowd. Che’lu, composed of SSC-R stars RK Ilagan, Allyn Bulanadi, and Michael Calisaan, were leading by as much as 14 points in the second half, only to squander it all up in the end as Lyceum forced turnovers after turnovers en route to a 21–4 bomb that stunned the Stags to oblivion.
The title was the icing on the cake for Perez, who claimed the conference MVP honors, before tip-off of Game 2. Meanwhile, it was a history-making feat for the then Topex Robison-mentored squad as Zark’s-LPU became the lowest-seeded team to ever win the D-League title, cementing their run as one of the best in the league’s existence.
STINGING SCORPIONS
When controversy paved the way for an underdog story.
Amid a 2019 PBA D-League quarterfinal series against a Go for Gold squad anchored by Roosevelt Adams, Gab Banal, and Santi Santillan, the CEU Scorpions sacked multiple players in their roster for a game-fixing incident in a summer tournament. The dismissal left the team with seven players, including the seven-foot Senegalese Maodo Malick Diouf, who was also playing on a handicap due to his fasting duties in the Ramadan season.
Sticking to his beliefs throughout, Diouf gutted it out, playing the entirety of their do-or-die game versus Go for Gold and dropping monstrous numbers of 25 points and 29 rebounds to accomplish the unthinkable and advance to the semifinal round where the extremely shorthanded Scorpions faced St.Clare.
The 7-man strong puzzle of CEU was proven to be unsolvable in the following series. As Diouf utterly controlled the paint with 33 boards alongside 19 markers, it was Rich Guinitaran that emerged to be the savior of the Scorpions, nailing the game-winning layup in Game 1 to draw first blood and put the pressure on St.Clare, led by the backcourt duo of Irven Palencia and Joshua Fontanilla.
After succumbing in Game 2, the Scorpions left everything in the decider as Guinitaran and Dave Bernabe poured in 23, and 22 points to dispatch St.Clare and set up a finals clash with the powerhouse Ateneo Blue Eagles made up of season MVP Isaac Go, Nieto brothers, and Thirdy Ravena.
At this point, the Dennis Pumaren-mentored CEU embraced the underdog status, leaving it all on the floor every single game. In return, the Scorpions won the hearts of those who followed their journey since the controversy. But the prize was more than just capturing the imagination.
Under the brilliance of head coach Tab Baldwin, the Blue Eagles hammered the Scorpions with a strong dose of reality check in the Finals opener, dealing CEU with a 101–66 rout, the biggest margin of victory in D-League finals history.
Not to be deflated by the disheartening defeat, CEU bounced back in a huge way. As the series swung back to the Ynares Arena after opening in San Juan, the Scorpions shocked even the harshest of doubters with a 77–74 Game 2 victory over Ateneo. The win not only sent shockwaves but also gave the seven-man crew a well-earned frenzied moment as the fans inside the arena applauded the squad, acknowledging the tremendous upset that struck right between their eyes.
In the game, Jerome Santos, unheralded at the time, led the way for CEU with 28 points and 10 points while being as pesky as he can against Ateneo’s Ange Kouame and Isaac Go. Diouf also had a terrific afternoon, filling the stat sheet with 23 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, and two steals.
As of writing, CEU’s Game 2 stunner of Ateneo still stands as the last time a team defeated the Ateneo men’s basketball.
Though the Blue Eagles eventually raised the D-League title with wins in Games 3 and 4, the Scorpions’ runner-up trophy felt bigger than the actual championship.
The seven-man CEU’s Cinderella tale may have started and ended on a sour note, but the legacy they left inside the Ynares Sports Arena throughout their improbable run is something to be remembered in D-League history.
