Eagles having the blues, bow to Warriors

University of the East yesterday dealt another blow to the first round campaign of Ateneo, 76-73, casting serious doubts on the highly-fancied Blue Eagles’ title bid in the UAAP basketball tournament at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum yesterday.

The Warriors took the best the comebacking Eagles could dish out in Ateneo’s bid to get back on track following a 49-53 shocker at the hands of the UP Fighting Maroons to post the stirring win and force a three-way tie for second behind solo leader the La Salle Green Archers. UE is now tied with Ateneo and Santo Tomas with identical 3-2 win-loss cards.

The Glowing Tigers, behind Alwin Espiritu’s 25-point performance, outclassed Far Eastern, 85-80, in the other senior contest.

Riding the momentum of their back-to-back wins over the Adamson Falcons and the National University Bulldogs , the Warriors dragged the Eagles in a close duel and came out the better team in execution and poise.

"Ateneo is definitely more talented but we defeated it through hard work and total team effort," said UE coach Boyzie Zamar.

True enough, the Warriors worked as one cohesive unit as they stretched their winning streak while dealing the Eagles a second straight loss.

"That’s a big win for us, considering we got it at a time when we knew Ateneo was aching for redemption. We anticipated Ateneo to come back and our gameplan did wonders," Zamar said.

Putting a swarming defense on Ateneo ace slotman Enrico Villanueva, the Warriors kept the game close until they unleashed a decisive run early in the fourth quarter to seize the initiatiive for good, 73-67.

Villanueva actually got his game going in the last quarter, scoring 10 points in the period, but the Warriors were in the groove on offense by then, keeping the Eagles at bay till the end.

Paul Artadi and James Yap scored 16 points apiece although it’s the trio of Arnold Booker, RJ Masbang and Jay-Arr Estrada who provided the clutch plays in the payoff period.

Booker scored eight of his nine points in the searing run that staked UE ahead at 73-67. Masbang scored on a tip-in to give UE more breathing room at 75-71 with time down to 43 seconds while Estrada put up a good defense on Rich Alvarez as the Ateneo ace forward went for a desperation three-pointer in the closing seconds.

Villanueva still paced the Eagles with 18 points on his fourth-quarter onslaught. Larry Fonacier added 17 points while LA Tenorio and Alvarez chipped in 10 apiece.

The Blue Eaglets gave the Loyola-based school some solace by whipping the Pages, 98-73, earlier.