Aplomb, Blood, Sweat and Tears

Behind-The-Scenes

Aplomb, Blood, Sweat and Tears

+ [Is that A Dirty Finger by Webb ?]

My DVDs with my Game Photos from Aug.21 to Sept.4 are still missing [AUURGH!]!, 
 have yet  to cover my blog backlog, but in the meantime, 
 here are some BTS [behind-the-scenes] moments that I just gotta share.

APLOMB

Just the way I LOVE IT.  When kid fans get involved with the games,

they do it without cursing or shouting unprintables [hindi sila bastos].

This pic is of a Blue Eagle fan.  Took this snap last Season 73, at which period I didn't have a blog yet.  I've noticed this fan a couple of times this

Season 74, but my shots of her as of late aren't as good as of those last year.

- Animated Abigail Altamirano - TRU NU Fan -

I'm always trigger happy when Coach Eric's little Abigail is around.

This is the 2nd time I've posted a pic of her.

Hope Eric Altamirano will coach NU again next Season 75
AND that he brings his Abiagail as often as possible.

BLOOD

At the halftime break of the DLS-UP match, the Drumline of the Animo Squad of De La Salle showcased their "flag routine".  The young flag bearers threw and twirled these metal poles to the beat of their fellow drumliners.

 During in the routine, one of them got hit on the forehead

 by the bottom end of his own flag pole.

Bloodied but unbowed [notice the blood on his left hand], he continued to finish the routine and then had himself rushed to the nearest ER.

His team mates mentioned to me [a few days after] that,

his blood even spattered in some of their jerseys.

Fortuntately, no stitches were required,

 but I heard he has a "C" shaped scar on his forehead.

I did ADMIRE his composure.

This guy's a Team Player.

His pals call him Adi.

Interestingly, his full name is ADIMRE Mariano.

SWEAT
 

We all know who this hotshot Tamaraw guard is.

For FEU to make it to the Finals Romeo has to

make life very miserable for the Falcons two straight games !!

TEARS

Another Season 73 UAAP BTS pic from my files.

Courtside reporter Erika "Rikki" Flores hurting after an upset loss

to a less seeded team.  This was taken at the UP Softball Field.

My favorite "Tears Photo" as of late.

Simon Atkins in a senti moment with Jopet Mendoza,

right after he played his last game as a Green Archer.

IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS ?

- Non-stop action - down to the last second -

 The Elimination Round started with an FEU-DLS match and

ended with another FEU-DLS match.

Even with the game already in the bag for FEU,

Joshua Webb wanted to cap his season with a drive in the last few seconds,

but Tamaraw Bruise Brother, Mark Bringas, would not allow hit.

Webb skied for the twinner and Bringas sent it all the way to the bleachers.

0.00 !! Game Over !!  Whatta Play !!

Upon closer scrutiny of my LAST action shot of the elims,

I zoomed in on the image and noticed Webb's fingers.

You guys be the judge of it.

I'm just a photographer.

I don't want to cap this blog post with tears or a finger.

Am ending it with a simple photo of

Charming Green Gals Christine Barreiro and Erica Alcantara.

brosi gonzales

My Quickie With Cassy Tioseco

Yes, I love Quickes - - -

of the Photographic Kind

Last summer I occasionaly watched the basketball games of a neighbor of mine who played for the DLSZ High School Varsity Women's Team.  After one of their matches versus AC [Assumption Convent] held at Southville last March, I introduced myself to Cassy Tioseco [whose younger sibling, Cammy, was playing for AC].  At that time, I had remembered Cassy from some rarely televised Ateneo Lady Eagles UAAP basketball matches from her last three playing years, when she helped Ateneo win two UAAP Women's Basketball Championship Crowns [2005 and 2007]. 
 [During those years I wasn't into sports photojournalism yet]

She was very sociable, friendly, and simple [in a charming way] - easy to converse with.  Naturally, we talked about sports [her UAAP experiences] and sports photojournalism.  She introduced me to Cammy, who had just come out of the showers, and also to her mom.  And within ten to fifteen mintes into our conversation I was able to convince her to pose for On-the-Spot Portraits.

--  [I like] -- 

Simple lang ang diskarte ko. With over two decades of film portraiture under my belt, asking people to pose for impromptu [available light] portraits is second nature for me.  [Not that I ask everyone I meet - that's totally ridiculous].  One can easily sense which situations are OK for that. And there are certain people who are so relaxed with themselves, so self-assured that I can't help but ask them nicely for portraits if I can sense they're up to it.

Ibang mga tao "Gets Mo" agad, hindi ba ?  Alam mo hindi sila plastic maski bago mo silang kilala.  MAGAAN ang dating. Pag ganoon ang tao ang sarap kunan ng litrato. Ganoon lang kasimple yoon.

Cassy is that kind of person.

Weeks later, I gladly personally gave her a CD with the
10-20 or so shots from that fine Saturday morning in March.

[Her On-the-Spot portraits, along with younger sibling Cammy,

were taken in the Southville School 4th Floor Basketball Gym, Paranaque,]

Another person who I had the pleasure of taking On-the-Spot portraits of, 

 on the same moring that I met her, is Thistle Guevara of ABC 5. 

Her portrait banners a previous blog entry which I titled

"Sel- A [Sizzling] Sight For Sore Eyes".

brosi gonzales

Round 2 - UE-DLS and ADM-UST

Aug.20, Saturday

UE-74   DLS-69

ADM-82   UST-57

- - -  Another Upset - - -

The 2nd Round has always seen the plot thicken - bringing in more surprises as teams make adjustments.

Unlike their 1st Round encounter, where the Archers schooled the Warriors, letting them eat their dust, the second meeting of DLS and UE saw a more confident UE team.  They had made their defensive adjustments and managed to stay close to Pumaren's Gang Green for three quarters.

Although he put in only 4 points, Red Warrior Lucas Tagarda

led UE in rebounds [11] and assists [4].

Once a Red Lion, now a Red Warrior, 

Chris Javier witha putback 2.

Veterans Paul Zamar and Simon Atkins

[both in their last playing year]

 in a mad scramble for the ball.

Another veteran, John Noble, charges right into the heart of the DLS defense.

DLS led [19-17] at the end of the 1st Quarter, but come haftime,

the Warriors were up by 4, and entering the 4th were still ahead [56-54].

For the UE Red Warriors then[in the last 10 minutes] it was just a matter of maintaing their composure, getting stops, and executing at the homestrech.

Tagarda again, this time with an undergoal drive versus Villanueva.

Archer Van Opstal is greeted by a phalanx

of Red Warriors.

They did finish what they started -

 eventually upsetting the favored Green Archers [74-69].

On the other hand, the following match had no surprises.

Top seed Ateneo dominated the inconsistent Tigers.

[who had just been through a heartbreaker of a loss to FEU just days before].

The Tigers domination of the boards was there [51 to Ateneo's 48] but the

Eagles fied goal and free throw percentages told the tale.

Ateneo registered a 41% in the field goal department to UST's 26%
while clipping 90% in the free throw lane to UST's 56%.

Ateneo led by 18 at the half and by 31 [68-37] entering the last quarter.

From then on it was just a matter of cruise control for Coach Norman Black
 who had the luxury of being able to give minutes to ALL his boys.
Ateneo won by 25 [82-57].

brosi gonzales

Round 2 - FEU vs UP and AdU vs NU



Aug. 18, Saturday

FEU-59   UP-53

AdU-68   NU-53

[Had to miss the first two game dates, Aug. 13 and 14, of the 2nd Round

to shoot the 3rd Iron Man 70.3 Triathlon at Cam Sur.]

  That Saturday - NU beat UE and AM beat FEU.

The following day - UST beat UP and AdU beat DLS.

Both the Tamaraws and Falcons were able to exact revenge against separate opponents on the third game date of the 2nd Round  of the eliminations in the UAAP Season 74 Basketball Tourney.  FEU beat UP by 6 points [59-53] and Adamson followed suit by winning over NU [68-53]. 

The 1st quarter ended at 15-all.  In the 2nd and 3rd Quarters, the Fighting Maroons limited the Tamaraws to 10 points per quarter and seemd to be headed for another upset over FEU, entering the 4th with a 13 point bulge [48-53] - - -

But FEU's experienced crew held the Boys from Katipunan

to a measly 5 points in the last quarter, whilst pouring in

 24 points to win by 6 [59-53].

 

UP had no counter to RR Garcia's 4th Quarter savy.

Here, Garcia's floater goes over the outstreched arms of UP's Mbah.

An all too common sight after every UP match.

Tough, very tough.

In the second match, not surprisingly, the Falcons floored it early on,
ending the 1st Quarter ahead by 10.  They continued to dominate the Bulldogs in the 2nd Quarter to end the half [37-22]with 15 point lead.  The 3rd saw Bobby Parks & Coy. outscore Austria's boys 16 to 11, but Coach Altamirano's charges were still behind by 10 [38-48] going into the 4th.

Janus Lozada drills a three.

The Falcons' experience again was just

too much for the Bulldogs to handle.

They were simply outplayed by Adamson - - -

who was led by their main man, Alex Nuyles.

He, along with Lozada and Cabrera tallied double figures.

They combined for 37 points, more than half of their team's final output of 68.

Parks managed 31 points the rest of his team mates could not complement

his scoring.  After Bobby Jr., the next highest scorer for NU was Mbe,

who put in only 6 points.

brosi gonzales

Don't Wanna Miss A Thing

A Few Favorite Random

Behind-the-Scenes Photos

Yup, besides that being the title of one of my all-time favorite rock tunes, it's also what I try to do [that's impossible of course] when it comes to to photographing all the UAAP Season 74 games.  There's the Mens, Womens, and Juniors Basketball matches, there's Badminton, Beach Volley, Track & Field [Men's & Women's], Softball [Women's], Baseball [Men's], not to mention Volleyball and Football [Men's & Women's too], Swimming and Judo.  Men's basketball is my priority with Women's Basketball and Beach Volley and Shakey's V-League as my next in line at this time of the year.  And to think action photos are not enough for me -- gotta have those behind-the-scenes off-court photos to make my "photographic sports experience" complete.

Is it a blogger's mortal sin ??  but fact is -- I haven't released anything on the 2nd Round of the Men's Basketball up to now-->since my Cam Sur posting.  I missed the first four matches of the 2nd Round --including that dramatic overtime win by Ateneo over FEU on Aug.13, being in Cam Sur on that weekend.  Will post all my game blogs from Aug. 18 up to the present in one marathon release this week [albeit late] but just gotta post a few Random Behind-the-Scenes Snaps from Sept. 4 [and afew days back].  I can't help it not showing at least some ASAP - It's just fun taking those BTS snaps, and I don't want U guys, too, to miss a thing.

On their Sept. 4  2nd Round encounter,

the Maroons completely dominated the Archers in the 1st quarter,

 limiting the Taft boys to only 7 points whilst scoring 23

 - - -

Just couldn't help but admire the Spirit of this Archer Fan, a writer/photgrapher.

When the chips were down, she led by example, showed her colors and

bared her soul for her Green Archers -- the hell with the UP lead !!

Go La Salle !!

I even quipped to a media collegue [and DLS grad, Edwin], whilst the Maroons were totally outplaying the Archers, that this game would go down the wire. and he replied "Wala na yon . . " 

As I expected, the equally proud Archers never said die and even when the half ended with UP on top 35-23 they believed that it was just

a matter of patience and execution.

- - -

When the 3rd quarter ended they were just a basket behind UP [48-50].

- - -

Going into the 4th, the shoe was on the other foot and the Archers simply outplayed the Diliman boys, leading by as much as 7-9 points - - -

but the Fighting Maroons managed to stay dangerously close

entering the last 2 minutes.

In the dying seconds, the Maroons had chance to force an overtime,

being behind only by 3 [70-73] - - but Mike Gamboa choked

and missed his three to give DLSU it's first win

 of the 2nd Round after 5 matches [72-73],

thus keeping their Final Four hopes alive.

Those Normally Insane Fans [just the way I like it] above

are DLSU grad Erica Alcantara and UP grad Ronin Bautista.

- - - any volunteers for the upcoming UAAP matches ??

Alyssa Valdez, wearing her beach volley tan, and her team mate Bea Tan

ham it up after their win over Adamson.  The Ateneo Girls Beach Volley Team 

now leads the standings with three straight victories and no loses.

Coach Parley Tupaz, Alyssa Valdez, Bea Tan, Fille Cainglet,

Sherwin Malonzo, Gretchen Ho, Ella de Jesus pose behind

 JP Pareja, Synjin Reyes and Shara So.

After the ADM-AdU match came the DLS-UP one which the Lady Archers won.

After a brief post game chat with Michelle Gumabao,

 Coach Saet, Abigail Marano, and Camille Cruz, 

 I found out the sad news that Joanne Sy had to leave the

UAAP Defending Champion DLSU Voleyball Team due to back problems.

- Basketball Dad -

Randy Javier, UE Warrior Chris Javier's dad, shares a light moment

 with UST's UAAP Board Representative.

- Basketball Mom -

Of course, the Phenom's proud mom, Mozzy, [right] with a friend,

can't help but be all smiles these days [the way Kiefer has been playing].

- Basketball Daughter -

Coach Altamirano's Abigail seems quite at home

at the Araneta Coliseum.

- Basketball Neice -

UST Tiger Melo Afuang's neice witnessed her Tito Melo

help UST defeat DLSU in the 2nd Round.

- Future Teng,  Past Teng, and Mrs. Teng -
[During the UST 2nd Round game vs DLS]

- Present Teng -
[This time The Tigers beat The Archers]

- Hair Color - Natural -
Tina Marasigan - UST

- Hair Color - Unnatural -

Kirk Long - Ateneo

- Hair Color - The Hell With It -

I like the Tiger Touch

One Big Fan

Another Big Fan

A Small Fan

A Smaller Fan

An Even Smaller Fan

- Definitely Not Well -

Yutien Andrada's contributions to the Green Archers are already
being sorely missed, now that the UAAP is entering the homestrech.

- Not Well Enough -

Another cager whose absence will be crucial for his team, UST, -

Melo Afuang just had his gallstones removed and simply cannot make it

back in time to help the Tigers in the crucial matches to follow.

- Hoping To Be Well Enough To Play -

Yesterday, JR told me that he'll be ready to play come their last elimination match.

We all know it's just gonna get A LOT tougher come the playoffs..

Thing is -- Will Cawaling be at 100% come game time ?

- Well Enough - But Not To Play -

My Pal Pippo, I feel for you dude, must be tough

 having to sit it out the whole of UAAP Season 74.

Anyway, see you at the playoffs bro ! 

Well - - - Unfortunately, we won't see her at the playoffs.

- Sigh -

 

The look that launched a thousand shots in my DSLR.

- Ina -

I've always loved portraits wether they be
contrived or spontaneous, posed or stolen.
This one is of Nico Salva on the ADM bench.

'NUFF SAID

brosi gonzales