FilOil caging: Guard-laden Ateneo wards off Southwestern U

MANILA, Philippines – From a tall team anchored on seven-footer Greg Slaughter, the Ateneo Eagles have transformed into a guard-heavy team as it defends its UAAP basketball championship for a sixth straight year.

Drawing strength from their lightning-quick and athletic wingmen, the Eagles survive a taller, bigger Southwestern U Cobras, 77-72, Saturday night to join La Salle and defending champion National U at the early lead in the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup at The Arena in San Juan City.

Kiefer Ravena came up across-the-board numbers of 22 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block while Nico Elorde and Fil-Am rookie sensation Chris Newsome scattering 19 and 14 points, respectively, to help carry the Loyola-based dribblers through.

"We're definitely smaller this year so we will be relying on a guard-heavy team this season," said Ravena, one of the most exciting players in the collegiate ranks now.

Ateneo appeared an entirely different team from last year as it played minus Slaughter, who missed out on his last year of eligibility for the Jesuit-ran school for the national team’s cause, and fellow big men Justin Chua and Nico Salva and with a brand new coach in Bo Perasol, who took over from now Talk N' Text mentor Norman Black.

It showed as the Eagles ran into trouble against the Cobras, the reigning CESAFI or Cebu college titlists who paraded three Cameroonian behemoths in Fabrice Siewe, Landry Sanjo and Justin Aboude. The big men took turns in combining for 25 points and 19 rebounds.

Ravena and the rest of the Eagles found a way to neutralize their size disadvantage with speed and athleticism.

"We're still on the infant stage together but slowly but surely, we'll get into the position that we want to," said Perasol, who made a name for himself coaching PBA teams including a defunct Powerade team.

"But as you can see, we may be small but the guys have hearts of giants and you see huge potential there," he added.

Interestingly, Ateneo played without two more seasoned guards in Ryan Buenafe and Juami Tiongson, who missed their first games due to academic reason and injury, respectively.

Another bright spot for Ateneo was the high-leaping, heavily-tattooed Newsome, who debuted with a bang after churning out 14 points on four-of-eight shooting clip from the field and six-of-nine from the foul line and adding a team-high 11 rebounds.

"I'm really excited because two years of residency is a long time and I learned a lot from Kiefer (Ravena), coach Norman (Black) and the rest of the guys, who kept me from going and push for a goal to win the school another championship," said the 20-year-old Newsome.

Newsome, whose mother Carmelita Duque Newsome is a Filipina who was born in Paranaque but lives in Pasay, played college ball for US NCAA Division II Mexico Highlands U in 2011 before transferring to Ateneo where he spent the next two years undergoing residency.

Newsome's highlight-reel moment came when on a fastbreak play, he sprinted the other side where he was spotted by Ravena, who threw an accurate pass that the former jammed home for a spectacular dunk that left the crowd in awe.

"I kind of waited for that moment and it just came," said Newsome.

"He used to that 100 times in practice, that's the 101st time he's done it," said Perasol.

The scores:

Ateneo 77- Ravena 22, Elorde 19, Newsome 14, Pessumal 7, Golla 5, Erram 5, Murphy 4, Babilonia 1, Lim 0, Tolentino 0, Asistio 0

SWU 72- Guillena 23, Siewe 12, Sanjo 9, Arong 8, Bautista 6, Aboude 4, Panerio 2, Goloran 2, Otida 2, Bregondo 2, Pajantoy 2, Ortega 0, Holper 0, Escobio 0

Quarterscores: 12-16; 32-31; 60-46; 77-72