Eagles take crack at finals vs Bulldogs

MANILA, Philippines - Top seed Ateneo guns for the first finals seat today against No. 4 National U, seeking to make the most out of its twice-to-beat advantage in the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball Final Four in a determined effort to get back to its familiar spot this time of the year.

But the road to a first championship stint since the end of its five-year reign has a big stumbling block as the Eagles face a Bulldogs pack they haven’t beaten in four matches over the last two seasons.

“We always have a difficulty matching up with NU as evidenced by our past games. However, it just sparks our collective competitiveness even more. We just have to find a way to get over them,” Ateneo coach Bo Perasol said.

“With all the heartaches NU has given us the past two years, we could bounce back and just win this game on Wednesday and those four games will be erased,” said King Eagle Kiefer Ravena.

The Bulldogs swept the Eagles in Season 76, 64-54 and 70-65, and extended their streak in this year’s elims, 64-60 and 76-66.

For NU coach Eric Altamirano, however, the Final Four showdown is an altogether different ball game.

“Pagdating sa Final Four, wala na’ng advantage-advantange (No one has the clear advantage when Final Four comes). Everything will even out, throw out the stats. You know, kung sino ang mas may gusto, yun ang mananalo (whoever wants it more will win it),” he said.

The AdMU-NU duel will take the theme “defense versus offense” as the Eagles churn a league-high 75.9 points per game while the Bulldogs choke opponents to 56.9 ppgs, allowing 33.6 percent field goal.

“It’s the number one offensive team versus the number one defensive team so one’s gonna give, yun lang talaga,” said Ravena.

“ It’s either we have to find a way on how to score more than they do or we find a way to stop (Alfred) Aroga, Troy (Rosario), Gelo (Alolino), (Pao) Javelona, and (Glen) Khobuntin; those guys are players who just won’t give up, they do their best everytime. But someone’s gotta give in.”

Altamirano said they will bank on their defensive prowess in trying to pull off a reversal.

“All throughout the season, that (defense) is what we’ve preaching to the boys. Maybe we’ll struggle in offense and commit turnovers but the important thing is we focus on our defense. If our defense got us here up to this point, then we’ll have to go with that,” he said.

NU always jumps the gun on Ateneo in their four meetings and this should be changed, according to Ravena.

“Those slow starts definitely killed us everytime...so we have to make an extra effort to start good, especially against a team like NU who’s so systematic, who knows how to handle pressure. We need to be the aggressors, we can’t be the aggrieved party at the start,” said Ravena.