Games today (Smart Araneta Coliseum)
2 p.m. – National University vs University of the Philippines
4 p.m. – Far Eeastern University vs University of the East
MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo returned to its familiar spot in the Final Four after romping off with a 67-52 victory over Adamson yesterday in the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball tourney at the MOA Arena.
The Eagles detonated a 15-0 bomb in the payoff period to rip the game apart, 56-35, and set the stage for their 10th win in 13 outings that sent them to the semis again after missing it out last season.
“I was a bit apprehensive because this was our third game in seven days and I really feel our energy was waning. Thankfully, our defense kicked in in the third and early fourth,” said AdMu coach Bo Perasol, whose wards grinded it out against Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines prior to the Adamson game.
The Eagles achieved some sort of redemption for their F4 bust in Season 76 but stressed the mission’s not done yet.
“We’re happy (to be in the F4) but as we all agreed, we want to go all the way this year and that’s going to be a tremendous task for us. It sounds cliché but if we really believe it, I know we can do this,” said Perasol.
Kiefer Ravena paced Ateneo with 16 despite struggling with a six of 19 clip while Chris Newsome added 12, including six in their fourth-quarter breakaway, plus 10 rebounds and six assists.
“Our goal is to make it to the Top 2 and we’ve only put ourselves in a very good situation to get that. So we have to focus and dig in, we have one more game (against FEU),” said Ravena.
Don Trollano fired 20 markers for the Falcons (0-13), who found themselves on the brink of repeating the ignominy of the winless seasons of 2000 and 2001. They will try to avert a shutout on Sept. 16 against University of the Philippines.
Defending champion La Salle held Santo Tomas scoreless in the last 2:32 to prevail, 67-60, and grab a playoff for a semis berth with 9-3.
Jeron Teng fired 11 of his 26 points in the fourth while Arnold van Opstal shot seven of his 11 in winning time as the Archers erased a 58-60 deficit and snatched the crucial triumph with a 9-0 windup.
The Tigers, who played without injured Kevin Ferrer and suspended Louie Vigil, dropped to 5-7 and on the brink of elimination. If National U (7-4) wins today against University of the Philippines, the Tigers will kiss their F4 bid goodbye.
“UST played well on both ends of the floor; they made it really hard for us,” said DLSU coach Juno Sauler.
“We wanted to focus on their scorers (Karim) Abdul and (Aljon) Mariano but they (Tigers) gave us a problem with their outside shots. We pulled this one off because of our defense,” he added.
With Abdul and Mariano held to 13 and six, respectively, Ed Daquiaog and Kent Lao took scoring cudgels for UST with 19 spiked by three triples and 14 laced with four treys, respectively.