Eagles quell Archers uprising

MANILA, Philippines - Not even a change in venue can alter the trend in college basketball’s hottest rivalry as Ateneo continued its mastery over La Salle, 71-61, in the UAAP Season 75 men’s basketball at the Mall of Asia Arena yesterday.

The Blue Eagles turned to big men Greg Slaughter (20 points, seven rebounds, one block) and Nico Salva (16 points, seven boards), who pounded it down low in the stretch, powering the Blue Eagles (3-1) to their fourth straight victory over the Green Archers (2-2) since 2010. 

Stretching back to 2008, the Eagles have beaten the Archers 10 times in their last 11 meetings at another venue, the Big Dome.

“Whenever you play La Salle, there’s no guarantee what’s going to happen. We expect the game to be close and there’s so much school spirit in the building; whether they have the most talent or we have the most talent, it doesn’t really matter, we know both teams will fight until the very end,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black.

In this case as in their previous encounters, the Eagles got the better of their rivals in their first faceoff at the newly built arena.

Earlier, University of Santo Tomas clawed back from a double-digit deficit to steal a 77-71 victory over National U to move to solo third at 2-1.

After Ateneo raced to a 20-8 first quarter lead and maintained a 37-26 margin early in the third, the Archers fought their way back into the game and stood within 53-55 with still 7:39 left.

Salva then connected on a baseline drive as Slaughter knocked in two clutch baskets at the post in a 7-0 salvo that restored a fresh 62-53 cushion for Ateneo going to the last 5:46. Slaughter and Salva made some crucial charities in the succeeding three minutes to seize a 66-60 lead, 2:06 left, then Ateneo watched La Salle commit a spate of miscues to secure the win.

“That’s the beauty of our team. We have Greg and Nico inside and the opponents have to focus on them too, so that would open a lot of opportunities for us in the perimeter to drive in. If we can’t make a basket, we can drop off to them,” said Ravena, who also had 16 markers.

Ateneo took full advantage of the 6-foot-11 Slaughter’s height and heft to impose their will inside, where they scored 42 points against DLSU’s 28. 

“They (DLSU) mixed it up a lot today defending Greg to throw him off. Sometimes, they double, sometimes they don’t, and when they do, they put in (Yutien) Andrada to take away his sight in passing. Eventually, we kept pounding it down to him as some of La Salle’s bigs got into foul trouble. Likewise, we also saw more of Greg’s willingness to give up the ball,” Black said.

LA Revilla returned from injury (tendinitis) to lead La Salle’s charge with 16 points and seven assists. Jeron Teng added 13 markers and eight boards for the Archers, who have lost two straight games this season.

Jeric Teng fired two triples to spark a crippling 18-5 run that turned the tables around for a UST side that, barely nine days ago, pulled off the same come-from-behind act against the Blue Eagles, 71-70.

“Naka-tsamba na naman kami. Fighting spirit lang at marami ang nanalangin (We got lucky again. We showed fighting spirit and prayers from our supporters helped us pull through),” said UST coach Pido Jarencio.

UST improved to 2-1, just one game behind pacesetting Far Eastern U (3-0) and tied with Ateneo and La Salle.

UST played catch-up all throughout as NU posted leads of as many as 14, at 29-15 early in the second period. The Tigers were still down by 10, 53-63, with still 9:41 left in the fourth.