The Final Score: Terence Romeo and FEU-La Salle games that never end

Terence Romeo is a rookie. Simon Atkins is a league veteran. In the UAAP Final 4 game between FEU and La Salle, no one could tell the difference. Romeo made top high school defenders doubt their abilities just a season ago. Nowadays, he’s making Coach Glen Capacio 100 percent certain of a rookie’s prime time readiness. FEU is a veteran team fueled by trusted old hands. With Aldrech Ramos, Reil Cervantes and RR Garcia, who needs rookies? If you play like Romeo, however, who needs experience?

Who does this Romeo kid think he is? Johnny A? Robin Mendoza? Celino Cruz? Mark Barroca? I sense FEU’s veterans were ready to stuff Romeo into a gym bag if he fumbled a play or missed any of his fade-away jumpers. But he made it all work. It’s astounding. On the same day, I saw a high school senior play like a college veteran and, hours later, a college rookie play with the steely nerves of a pro. Iba na talaga mga bata ngayon (sigh). I’ll talk about Blue Eaglet Kiefer Ravena by next week, as most people will. Romeo, after all, dominates today’s column the way he dominated crunch-time against La Salle.

Atkins and Coach Dindo Pumaren’s merry band of overachievers, meantime, slip out of sight, out of mind. The team that often shot like “The Bullet" but sometimes fired blanks like “The Pellet" is gone. But not before pushing FEU to the edge. That’s the beauty of La Salle’s winning ways. You’ll never know who they’ll beat and who they’ll lose to. It’s a basketball “Trip to Jerusalem" that just made its final go-around. I bet next year’s team will have a season 5 times more intriguing.

Romeo’s brazenness and La Salle’s impudence further strengthened the UAAP’s second-biggest rivalry. If FEU and La Salle played a best-of-9 series for a finals berth, no one will complain. When Ateneo and La Salle meet, they’re like knights colliding in an annual joust. They try to kill each other in the most urbane way possible. They attempt to be noble even when they’re tearing each other to shreds. FEU and La Salle, on the other hand, is a rivalry best played in The Octagon. Games go into overtime. Battles are won on the court. Championships are won outside the arena. Managers go berserk. Fans go wild.

Not to say that all FEU-La Salle games since the epic Finals of ’89 were all meetings between thugs. Andy de Guzman. Joey Santamaria. Johnny Abarrientos. Jun Limpot. Ronald Magtulis. Jason Webb. Arwind Santos. Mac Cardona. See, it’s not just about Anton Montinola and Manny Salgado. It’s a 21-year old tradition that rages on, through broken Tamaraw horns, boardroom squabbles, controversial calls and combustible chapters. Yet as Romeo and Atkins easily point out, even if the former sank three pointers when it mattered while the latter couldn’t duplicate the opening day magic his team needed at the very end, there’s always excellence to complement the enmity that never fades.

Mico Halili, GMA News TV