Six Figures That Mattered During the UAAP Season 76 Finals

The men's basketball tournament of the 76th Season of the UAAP ended perfectly with the DLSU Green Archers bagging the championship at the expense of the UST Growling Tigers, who have fought hard from below by defeating Ateneo for the fourth seed, NU twice for the Final Four slot, and finally sealing Game 1 of the Finals, only to falter for two straight games. But what factors played a big role in this thrilling championship series that everyone wished for? Here are some figures that could give us a picture of what occurred in the last three games:

• 58% was Finals MVP Jeron Teng's free throw shooting percentage, which is a far cry from his first five games of Season 76 and has played a big role in the Finals, especially due to the fact that a lot of fouls were called in the Green Archers' favor. This perhaps is one reason as to why the younger Teng deserves to grab the Finals MVP plum. Sure, it's not much, but this is a huge improvement, considering that most of the free throws he made came in clutch time. P.S. his true shooting percentage stood at about 45%, which is not really bad considering that he takes a considerable volume of shots
• 69 was the total number of points that the older Teng scored for the UST Growling Tigers during the whole stretch of the Finals, accounting for 31.3% of his team's total points (Karim Abdul, on the other hand, had 26.4%, and combined with Teng, accounts for more than half of the team's total points scored). Teng shot 44.1% from the field (26 of 59, and 9 of 21 from beyond the arc), and hit 8 out of 11 free throws. This three-game series showed how he is more of a volume scorer that can put up points when necessary, and thanks to his performance, he grabbed enough attention for him to be considered as a first-round pick in the upcoming 2013 PBA draft.
• 66-39 are the number of offensive boards for DLSU and UST, respectively. These second chance opportunities largely defined the Finals victories, and it is clear that in this aspect, the Green Archers have the upper hand because of their frontcourt trifecta composed of Jason Perkins, Arnold Van Opstal, and Norbert Torres. The total rebounds that DLSU and UST garnered respectively was 155-124, which means that 45% of DLSU's total rebounds led to second chance opportunities, compared to UST's 31%. Really shows height is might, doesn't it?
• 4.67 points per game was senior forward Aljon Mariano's points per game during the 3 Finals games, which for most has been his most disappointing moment of the season. He only shot 17.9% from the field (and none from beyond the arc), and grabbed 7.7 rebounds a game, quite distant from his 8.5 average during the eliminations. However, it must be noted that Mariano was playing with a serious ankle injury for the rest of the season. With one more year to boot, can he carry the Growling Tigers to another championship stint?
• 47 was the total number of points that guard Almond Vosotros had in the Finals, two of them being the biggest, which comes from his sideline jumper that sealed the game for the Green Archers during Game 3. Vosotros made up for his awful 6 of 38 clip prior to the Finals and scored most of the big baskets in the games that mattered the most (he shot 19 of 55 in the 3 games). 
• 9.67 was Karim Abdul's rebounds per game in the Finals, the most among all the Growling Tigers. While Teng takes care of the outside, it was Abdul who manned the paint and provided the anchor for UST on both sides. Abdul's disappearance due to foul trouble during Game 2 really turned the tables against the Growling Tigers, and had it not happened, things could have gone differently.

TAKE NOTE: The Green Archers bagged their 8th championship in the UAAP (with 13 championships overall), while it was the Growling Tigers' 3rd Finals appearance in the span of 10 years (with 6 Final Four appearances), and a record of 3-5 in Finals Games under Coach Pido Jarencio.

Credits to pba-online.net for the statistics and GMA Network Online for the pic.