UE shows its tenacious defense as Raffy Reyes, left, and Lucas Tagarda surround Ateneo’s Jose Reyes in Game 2 of their UAAP best-of-three championship series last Sunday. (Photo by BOB DUNGO JR.)

Ateneo was supposed to march effortlessly to its second straight championship Sunday. Instead, the Blue Eagles appear to be on the ropes, their confidence shaken and their title hopes hanging by a thread.

This was after the University of the East Red Warriors, a team that was considered just a blip in Ateneo’s expected march to the crown, put on a grandiose performance Sunday that shocked even the unflappable Norman Black.

UE’s win, an 88-68 shellacking of the Blue Eagles, silenced the boisterous Ateneo crowd and handed the Red Warriors the momentum in the third game of their best-of-three UAAP championship series on Thursday.

More important, the comprehensive nature of UE’s victory should linger for a while on the psyche of the Blue Eagles who have not suffered that kind of humiliation this season or last.

For UE coach Lawrence Chongson, whose squad lost, 78-71, in the first game, a win on Thursday would make him look like a genius after getting mocked and ignored as he took over the helm of the Warriors as an untested rookie coach.

Although it was easy to dismiss the Red Warriors as simply a team that got into the finals with an element of luck, after Far Eastern University’s meltdown over the Mark Barroca incident, one must not forget that UE came to the series with an 8-game winning streak.

The key for UE was a more free-flowing offense and a tenacious defense anchored behind a surprise zone that caught Ateneo flat-footed.

In what arguably was its best game in the tournament, UE shot well from the field. And it was not even the much-touted Paul Lee who carried the Warriors.

That honor belonged to Elmer Espiritu who converted four of his five attempts from the three-point area for a game-high 22 points. But two of them will be remembered for quite a while: An alley-oop dunk on a perfect feed by Lee that left the jaws of Ateneo fans open.

Pari Llagas turned in 19 points, six rebounds and five assists. Lee had 13 points.

UE’s defense forced the favored Eagles to hit just 11-of-32 shots in the second half and only 7-of-34 treys the rest of the game. Rabeh Al-Hussaini, the Ateneo star and last year’s MVP, was held to just 11 shots and finished with 18. He averaged 28 points and 13 rebounds against UE.

"What went right was our defense because we went zone and gambled on it," said Chongson. "We gave them the outside shots, clogged the middle and finally reduced the output of Al-Hussaini and we tried to contain him and it worked."

"We had better games. From a defensive team that UE was known before, ngayon we're an offensive team but yung premium namin sa defense nandun pa rin it's just that we adjust through different opponent," Chongson added.

Jai Reyes, the other Ateneo star who fired 5-of-5 treys in the second half to finish with 17 markers in the series opener, was held to just 3-of-11 threes for 11 points while Eric Salamat was again a non-factor with just four points to show.

Ateneo coach Norman Black admitted that his team went away with its usual inside game and relied too much on the outside shots.

"Rabeh only took 11 shots today so I don't think it was all him," said Black. "If you look at our guards they combined for like 25 threes. On the contrary, we didn't give to Rabeh enough and we relied too much on perimeter shooting."

Black admitted they came out flat and the Warriors played much better than in Game 1 of their series.

"Obviously, they shot the ball well in the perimeter which is something they haven't done against us, particularly, their big guys so we have to defend better on the three-point line," Black said.

"We also gave a lot of backdoor plays in the second half so those we're the things that we'll have to work heading for Thursday," he added.