The Final Score: Ateneo-La Salle game had nostalgic 90’s vibe.

I believe my high school classmate, a devout Ateneo alumnus, Walter de Jesus, said it best. After La Salle beat Ateneo last July 7, Walter, through iMessage, told me, “Parang college lang feeling ko.”

I agreed. It was a time machine moment.

The game, the flow, the outcome, the vibe of the Green Archers’ 82-73 victory over the Blue Eagles brought some of us back to the nineties. If you’re old enough to remember the Ateneo-La Salle games from that decade, it doesn’t matter if you root for blue or green, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

In the nineties, La Salle regularly competed for UAAP championships and Ateneo did not. Simple as that. In the afterglow of Ateneo’s current five-peat reign, it looks like a ridiculous concept. But that’s just the way it was. Believe it or not, during that decade, many Ateneans were fine with that reality.

No, really.

It was as if heartbreak at the end of games became a habit. Chasing moral victories became a standard. Waiting for that next great collection of homegrown players, that batch which could duplicate the magic of the 1987-1988 back-to-back champion teams became the mission statement. If you waited for it, perhaps prayed hard enough for it, it will come.

Believably, La Salle was fine with the arrangement. The perpetual contender, naturally, wanted the perpetual underdog to embrace the status quo.

When Ateneo raced to a startling 40-28 lead at the half, I imagined how my friends from La Salle felt.

How could this be? Ateneo was missing Kiefer Ravena. La Salle had the superior front line. The Blue Eagles were underdogs. The Green Archers were favorites. This was an anomaly. This was a heart-twisting upset in the making. I sat beside Raoul Reinoso, Managing Editor of SLAM Magazine and devout La Salle alumnus, at the game and I heard his heart pounding like bouncing cannonballs.

I offered words of comfort, “Pare matagal pa yan.”

True enough, the favored team bounced back. The overachieving team, on the other hand, watched their lead shrink from double-digits to nothing and saw their battery of reliable big men wither after JP Erram and Frank Golla fouled out.

My friend Walter spent the second half watching La Salle center Arnold Van Opstal score basket after basket. Ah yes, that felt familiar. Walter remembered how it felt whenever Jun Limpot, Mark Telan and Don Allado bullied their Atenean counterparts for an entire decade.

The favorites won.

The underdogs lost.

No wonder Walter, who likewise felt that mad, addictive rush when you see an overachieving team nearly win, said, “Parang college lang feeling ko.”

And instinctively I replied, “Oo nga. Parang panahon lang natin. Too good to be true ‘pag lamang tayo. Never surrender pag lamang kalaban. ”

When Ateneo and La Salle meet again in the second round, the situation can change provided Ravena returns. For now, however, Ateneans can embrace this nostalgic hurt while La Sallians can bask in this nineties throwback moment. - AMD, GMA News