that's what former teammates are for (photo source)
three points on the blue eagles' victory against the tamaraws, the last game of both teams for the first round of uaap season 75. the blue eagles head into the second round with a 6-1 record.
slaughter with the stuff (photo source)
1."the other guys". ateneo has been relying much on its version of the "big three" in kiefer ravena, nico salva, and greg slaughter. however, the two-week layoff must have caused the rusty first half for the blue eagles. slaughter might have led the blue eagles in scoring this game but he had a hard time with all the hooliganism of the bringas brothers on court. i mentioned in a previous column that salva's performance often served as a barometer for an ateneo victory, but he looked lost this game. ravena, who scored the first basket of the game, only got his act going in the second half. but much credit for this win goes to three other players on the roster: juami tiongson, ryan buenafe, and jp erram.
i had doubts about tiongson's point guard play at the beginning of the season but his steady performance during the first round proved me wrong, and i humbly stand corrected. his three point shots in the third quarter ignited the lethargic ateneo offense that plagued them in the first half. rr garcia might have torched his defense but i'm sure he will eventually learn defending and going through screens. he's not an emman monfort defensively but more of a jai reyes on offense.
buenafe once again reminded the blue side of the coliseum that he loves to play against feu. with salva on an off-night, buenafe used his time on court to distribute the ball and make timely plays in that blistering second half run. he took the ball to the hole with that deceptive spin and ridiculous hang time for a "wide" man. more importantly, he facilitated ball movement that gave slaughter and other teammates some easy baskets. if he made a three ball during that game, he would have surely silenced the noisy and shrieking feu crowd inside the coliseum.
erram is another guy who loves to play against feu. during the finals of season 70, he was the intimidating presence in the paint that swatted shots and snagged rebounds for the eventual champions. a season later, he started to contribute on the offense and was a perfect compliment to slaughter in defending our goal. this game, he was all over the court with his put backs, rebounds, and defense against feu's big men.
twin towers (photo source)
2. the twin tower formula. we've seen this in the past few games how coach norman black fielded both slaughter and erram or justin chua make the shaded lane a bit more friendly on offense and quite scary on defense. with slaughter getting ganged up on the inside, another big man comes in handy for an uncontested stab. when teams go for that drive-and-dish play, a second tower can cover the basket as the other one tries to recover for a rebound. coach norman surely knows how to develop his big men, and we've got a long list of players who benefited much from his style of player development: doug kramer, ford arao, rabeh al-hussaini, nonoy baclao, chua, erram, slaughter, and the list goes on and on. who knows, kris porter and g-boy babilonia (who were absent as they were part of the philippines u18 team competing in fiba asia tournament in mongolia this week) would find their way to the list? imagine frank golla becoming an offensive monster next season? or maybe i'm just imagining too much.
flight of an eagle (photo source)
3. ateneo is a second half team. since that second half meltdown against ust, ateneo has regained the distinctive edge of making adjustments during halftime to pull off surprises in the second half this season. against nu, they contained their long distance shooters and let rayray parks get trigger-happy in the midrange. against la salle, against dlsu, they stopped that momentum shift in the middle of the third quarter to keep control of the game. against up and ue, they found a way to make slaughter's life easier on the paint by kick outs and cuts that led to easy baskets. this game, they adjusted their defense to stifle feu's ball rotation, which led to shot clock violations and difficult shot attempts from long range. their three point shots started clicking in the third quarter which made their catch up easier. and they let buenafe create mismatches as well as opportunities for scoring for his teammates. once ateneo gets to read the opponent's play, regroup in the dugout and get their adjustments going, it is not a remote possibility that ateneo will get the win. and if this becomes a trend just like in the previous seasons, they will be hard to stop in the second round.
pati kalaban nagpapapicture (photo source)
The Scores:
ADMU 74 – Slaughter 17, Tiongson 12, Ravena 12, Buenafe 10, Erram 6, Elorde 6, Salva 6, Sumalinog 3, Chua 2, Golla 0, Gonzaga 0.
FEU 71 – Garcia 21, Hargrove 12, Romeo 10, Bringas A. 10, Bringas M. 7, Belo 6, Tolomia 3, Pogoy 2, Cruz 0, Mendoza 0, Sentcheu 0.
Quarter Scores: 18-21; 27-37; 49-53; 74-71
photos from sirs philip sison and erwin cabbab of fabilioh.com
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