Eagles tame Bulldogs; Tams disarm Archers for solo lead

MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo turned what was expected to be a showdown between title contenders into a one-sided affair, walloping National University, 89-65, to get back on track in the UAAP Season 75 men’s basketball tournament at the MOA Arena yesterday.

Learning their lessons from their 70-71 heartbreaker to University of Santo Tomas three days ago, the Blue Eagles played relentlessly for the whole 40 minutes, dominating the Bulldogs – one of their projected top rivals for a “five-peat” – from start to finish to win pulling away.

“The concentration the last two days is to keep focus for 40 minutes,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black, recalling that setback to UST where they squandered big leads.

“We played very well against UST for 20 minutes and then we relaxed in the second half and didn’t play very good defense or offense. But today, we were able to play a complete 40 minutes,” added Black, whose wards have beaten NU in all of their last nine meetings since 2008, seven of them by 20 points or more.

The Eagles improved to 2-1, good for a share of second with La Salle, behind still unbeaten Far Eastern U (2-0).

The Tamaraws leaned on a clutch jumper by Michael Tolomia in the last 46.7 seconds to outclass the short-handed Green Archers, 48-46, and wrest the solo lead.

Ateneo opened the game with 8-0 run and didn’t let up from there, enjoying as many as 27 points, 87-60, in the fourth quarter.

“We did nothing special, really, just recognizing NU’s key players (Bobby Ray) Parks, (Emmanuel) Mbe, and (Jeoff) Javillonar and try to stop them or at least slow them down,” Black said.

Parks finished with 22 points but fouled out for the first time in his UAAP career while Mbe had 14 and Javillonar only had one.

Nico Salva (21 points, five rebounds), Kiefer Ravena (17 markers, five assists) and Greg Slaughter (14 points, 13 rebounds, five assists) led the way for Ateneo.

“The loss to UST was a wakeup call for us. We should recognize our mistake and we spoke about it before this game. It’s all about playing defense, playing Ateneo basketball and sharing the ball,” said Salva.

Tolomia knocked in a jumper with 46.7 seconds left as the Tams picked up a second straight nail-biting win at the expense of the Archers (2-1) who played without guards L.A. Revilla (tenditinis) and Luigi dela Paz (coaches’ decision).

“I realized that (Jeron) Teng is their weakest defender so I gave the play to his man, Tolomia. They (La Salle) were also defending well against RR (Garcia) and Terrence (Romeo) so someone else should get the ball,” said FEU coach Bert Flores.

Given the go-signal to shoot against the rookie Teng, the  5-11 Tolomia launched a step-back jumper to hand the Tams a 48-46 cushion. After an exchange of unproductive offensives, La Salle got the last shot but Almond Vosotros’ trey from the top of the key bounced out as time expired.

Only Romeo managed to finish in double figures (10 points) in the low-scoring game that saw the Tams struggle with a 19 of 63 clip (30.2 percent) and the Archers with 15-of-54 (27.8 percent).

Tolomia and Anthony Hargrove added seven apiece for FEU, which followed up its come-from-behind 73-72 win over University of Santo Tomas on opening day with another nail-biter.

“We were a bit thrown off when Revilla didn’t play because our gameplan was focused on him, having been the one in control of La Salle’s previous games. We had to adjust without Revilla and also dela Paz,” said Flores.

The scores:

First Game 

FEU 48 – Romeo 10, Tolomia 7, Hargrove 7, Pogoy 6, Garcia 6, A. Bringas 5, Cruz 4, Belo 3, Mendoza 0, Escoto 0, M. Bringas 0.

DLSU 46 – Andrada 8, Vosotros 8, Mendoza 8, N. Torres 8, Teng 6, Tallo 4, Van Opstal 2, Tampus 2, T. Torres 0, Webb 0, Manguerra 0.

Quarterscores: 15-11, 23-26, 35-34, 48-46

Second Game

AdMU 89 – Salva 21, Ravena 17, Slaughter 14, Chua 12, Gonzaga 9, Tiongson 8, Elorde 3, Buenafe 3, Erram 2, Porter 0, Pessumal 0, Capacio 0.

NU 65 – Parks 22, Mbe 14, Villamor 10, Ignacio 6, Rono 5, De Guzman 2, Betayene 2, Alolino 2, Khobuntin 1, Javillonar 1, Rosario 0, Neypes 0, Labing-isa 0.

Quarterscores: 28-17, 55-34, 72-54, 89-65