Steady Adamson foils Ateneo-La Salle finale

MANILA, Philippines - Defending champion Ateneo bucked the 30-point explosion of University of Cebu’s behemoth Junemar Fajardo and came away with a 74-54 rout at The Arena yesterday to arrange a showdown for the 2010 Philippine Collegiate Champions League with Adamson.

The Falcons foiled what could’ve been a blockbuster Ateneo-La Salle title duel as they tripped the Archers, 67-59, in the other Final Four match.

The best-of-three championship series starts tomorrow at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Throwing DLSU’s offense off with its zone defense, Adamson detonated a 10-3 bomb at the start of the fourth to open up a 59-48 cushion then hung tough in the last 4:35 to reach the PCCL finals for the first time.

The 6-9 Fajardo scored 15 points in each half and finished with an impressive 12-of-20 stint. He also grabbed 15 rebounds but accounted for 10 of UC’s 27 turnovers.

The Blue Eagles pounced on those errors and scored 17 points as the back-to-back UAAP champions overcame a third quarter lapse to fashion out the victory.

“The guy (Fajardo) is 6-9, 269 lbs and my guys are 6-4, 6-5, 220 lbs. Physically we have a big disadvantage. But my guys did the best they could under the difficult circumstances,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black, whose wards managed to battle UC on equal terms off the boards despite Fajardo, 38-all.

The 21-year-old Fajardo had the leather in nearly every play that he had more attempts at the basket (20) than the rest of UC combined (13).

“Our game plan was to make it very difficult for him to score while not giving everyone else a good shot,” said Black.

“Offensively, our game plan was to put Fajardo in as many pick-and-roll plays as possible. When that happens, when Emman comes off the screen, he gets a pretty good look at the basket,” he added.

Monfort fired 15 points, including two triples, along with seven rebounds and seven assists to lead the Eagles to the best-of-three championship against the Falcons.

Back-to-back treys by guard Juami Tiongson to end the first canto gave AdMU a 23-16 lead. They stretched this to 33-20 in the second via a 10-4 attack spiked by two triples from another small man, Luis Gonzaga.