Eaglets cap 14-game run

MANILA, Philippines - The Ateneo Blue Eaglets cruised past National U, 87-61, to complete a 14-game sweep of the elims and gain outright entry to the finals in the UAAP Season 73 juniors basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

Kiefer Ravena once again took charge with 24 points and dished off eight assists as the Blue Eaglets stormed to their fifth straight finals appearance.

Under the new UAAP rules on sweep, the two-time defending champions will enjoy a thrice-to-beat advantage against their finals opponent, who will be decided in a step-ladder phase featuring the Nos. 2-4 teams.

The Bullpups ended their campaign at provisional second with 10-4, although University of Santo Tomas (9-4) can still force a KO for the No. 2 slot with a win against Adamson on Thursday. The No. 2 team will get a twice-to-beat incentive in the step-ladder for the right to face Ateneo.

It was the second time in five years that Ateneo swept the preliminaries, scoring the sweep in a 12-game elims in a La Salle-less 2006 season.

“We just told the boys that there are no pressure on them. Just have fun and play our game; the pressure is with the coaching staff. I’m very glad they played our game and we won,” said AdMU assistant coach Jesus Angelo Naynes, whose team only needs to win twice in the finals to nail their third straight title.

Ravena fired 13 points in the first quarter as the Eaglets built an early 21-4 lead. Josh Gadia took over in the second with four triples as the Katipunan-based dribblers maintained a comfortable 42-26 margin at the break. They went on to post their biggest lead at 68-35 late in the third.

Gadia gave Ateneo a huge lift with his snipings. “He’s really there to shoot the three-points. NU was playing man-to-man on Kiefer and (Von) Pessumal so Josh (Gadia) was really open (for those triples),” said Naynes.

Far Eastern University-FERN earlier routed De La Salle-Zobel, 69-51, to catch up with the Junior Archers at No. 4 with identical 7-7 slates.