MANILA, Philippines - The Ateneo Blue Eagles showed they could take whatever physicality their rivals would throw at them, outlasting the Far Eastern U Tams in a highly charged contest, 77-64, to remain in the lead in the UAAP Season 75 men’s basketball tourney at the MOA Arena yesterday.
Refusing to back down and get thrown off their rhythm by the bruising tactics of the Tams, the Blue Eagles unloaded a 16-5 run at the start of the fourth period to seize control and cruise to their seventh straight win and a leading 8-1 overall.
“They (FEU) played us physical in an attempt to take us out of our game, but they couldn’t. That’s part of the makeup of our team; we’re able to take what the other team gave us and we gave back. I think we’ve proven through the years that we won’t back down from anybody,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black.
The game was filled with elbowing, pushing and lots of banging of bodies that three players were ejected from the match. Ateneo’s Ryan Buenafe and FEU’s Mark Belo were tossed out for getting slapped a combo of unsportsmanlike foul and technical foul with 4:42 in the first period while Tams’ Arvie Bringas was assessed a disqualifying foul in 5:47 of the fourth for spitting at Justin Chua.
Commissioner Ato Badolato said Bringas would get an automatic one-game suspension while Buenafe and Belo escaped further sanctions because their infractions were not disqualifying fouls.
Juami Tiongson rifled in 16 points spiked by four triples, two of them made when the Eagles seized a 65-48 cushion going to the last 5:26.
Unlike the previous win over UP, where the Eagles struggled with their outside shots, Black’s wards were more accurate from the perimeter, making seven of their 19 shots from beyond the arc and 13-of-33 overall (36.11 percent).
“We made our outside shots, particularly in the second half,” said Black, adding he’s pretty satisfied with his wards’ performance this time. “We played much better tonight.”
It was Ateneo’s eighth straight victory over FEU since 2010.
RR Garcia and Terrence Romeo combined for 27 points for FEU, which slipped to 7-3 in a tie for second with UST.
Earlier, Jeron Teng knocked in a jumper at the buzzer as La Salle turned back Santo Tomas, 53-51, to firm up its grip on the fourth spot with 6-3, just half a game behind the No. 3 Tigers and a win ahead of No. 5 National U (5-4).
Entrusted with the leather in the final 3.3 seconds, the 6-2 Teng shook off the defense of Kevin Ferrer to launch a shot from the elbow that hit the bottom of the net as the Archers escaped with fourth straight win before priming up for their clash with rivals Ateneo on Saturday.