The Final Score: From 'Caidic vs Jarencio' to 'Ravena vs Sumang'

 

I envy fans who witnessed the legendary shootout between UE’s Allan Caidic and UST’s Pido Jarencio back in the 1984 UAAP Finals. As in inggit na inggit ako whenever old-timers recall how Caidic and Jarencio engaged in a personal race: first to 50 points wins. Mind you, that’s not first to score 50 points for the series. That’s first to score 50 per game. They were that bold. They were that good. 

 

And I was too young to see it. Does a tape of this exist? Kahit film reel? Anything? 

 

According to basketball historian Jay P. Mercado, the stories I heard were real. In Game One, Caidic and Jarencio each scored at least 30 points. In Game Two, Caidic scored 35 and Jarencio countered with 34. In a winner take-all Game Three, Caidic fired 46 points while Jarencio finished with 48. UE won the series. But Caidic and Jarencio won permanent places in people’s memories.

 

I don’t even need to verify these numbers. Accuracy is no longer the point. The point is two players put on a scoring spree that makes old-timers gush until today. I wish I could be one of them. I don’t wish to be older. I just wish I had the ability to go back in time to watch such events as they happened. 

 

It’s different from watching some grainy Betamax tape, armed already with the knowledge of the outcome. Dapat, you get to watch it the way fans at the time watched it. You need to wonder, “What would Caidic do today?” You need to ask, “How will Jarencio answer back?” Dapat, you’re expecting the unexpected. Para may sense pa rin of wonderment. Yung magugulat ka when history happens. Yung mapapamura ka when two players combine for 94 points.

 

After watching the duel between Ateneo’s Kiefer Ravena and UE’s Roi Sumang last August 10, 2014, I feel that I got my own compact Caidic-Jarencio experience. I’m not saying that Ravena and Sumang will eventually accomplish what Caidic and Jarencio accomplished. I’m not saying Ravena’s 38 points and Sumang’s 30 points eclipse or match what Caidic and Jarencio put up in three unforgettable games. 

 

What am I saying?

 

At least, I now know how it feels to watch two college players go at it like they’re racing to 50. Matching expectation with results is the most elusive equation in sports. The distance between what one needs to do and what one eventually does can be as wide as the ocean or as negligible as a thread. Two players showed that a divide between what you want to see and what they’re pressured to do barely exists. Ravena and Sumang were that bold. Ravena and Sumang were that good. 

 

Maybe Ravena and Sumang, like Caidic and Jarencio, can make it a best-of-three. Maybe Ravena and Sumang can meet again, malay natin, in the UAAP Final Four. Maybe Ravena’s 38 and Sumang’s 30 were just a preview, not the pinnacle, of their scoring proficiencies. Who knows? Go for it guys! 

 

Here’s what I know: after watching Ravena face Sumang point for point, basket for basket, memory for memory, I envy the old-timers a little less. — JST, GMA News