Ateneo gets the job done vs DLSU

MANILA, Philippines – The Ateneo Blue Eagles defeated the La Salle Green Archers, 81-69, to go to 2-0 in the young UAAP Season 82.

La Salle had a good start to the game as they played a tight zone while repeatedly attacking the basket. Ateneo tightened up its interior defense and seized the lead for good after two Gian Mamuyac free throws that made it 6-5, Ateneo.

The Blue Eagles posted a huge 22-point lead early in the second period anchored on fastbreaks, turnovers by the Green Archers and the latter being in penalty. Ateneo was 7-3 in turnover points in that frame to go with 4-0 in fastbreak points, and a 7-0 advantage in second chance points. Furthermore, they were 14-14 in free throws for the first half.

The Green Archers slowly whittled away at the lead but Ateneo always had a response.

The inevitable La Salle run came and although Ateneo handled it well at first, turnovers and I thought a missed moment that deserved a substitution, and ugly offense saw the Green Archers launch a stirring comeback.

It was a subpar outing by Thirdy Ravena and Angelo Kouame (he played well defensively though), but the others — the next men up — in William Navarro, Mike Nieto and Mamuyac carried the scoring cudgels for Ateneo.

I thought that Ateneo missed opportunity to crush La Salle. Instead, many opine that if it weren’t for the second quarter cushion that was built, the Green Archers could have caught up.

Maybe. Maybe not.

I thought that La Salle had an excellent game plan. They threw a zone that at times placed three men atop the key to stop any drives. And on offense, they attacked every chance they got. Jamie Malonzo (who will get even better as he soaks in more experience) even posterized Thirdy Ravena while Encho Serrano scored on an and-one on Matt Nieto. Basically, everyone was attacking the interior regardless of the presence of Angelo Kouame.

After that Malonzo dunk on Thirdy and he started jawing against No. 0, I thought back to a pair of incidents… Joshua Webb talking smack to the Blue Eagles and then Ryan Buenafe putting his arm around the Archer and pointing to the scoreboard, and when Robert Bolick Jr. was a rookie for DLSU. Bolick forced Ravena to a turnover and began clipping in his face. That lit up Blue Mamba and he scored 31 points on Bolick and everyone else who was put in front of Ravena.

Just to clarify, Thirdy scored on a twisting drive and hit a jumper after the Malonzo dunk, but after that, he didn’t do much. Luckily, his teammates made up for the lack of offense and helped to make this a W for Ateneo.

Speaking of offense, the previous year, I pointed out how Ateneo tends to shoot a lot from the outside. When it goes it, it looks pretty, but when it doesn’t such as the game against La Salle, it gets ugly. Granted those were the looks La Salle was giving the team. But still, why not attack the interior instead of settling for jump shots? For a bit there, I was afraid that Ateneo would break UST’s number of attempts from the three-point arc (49 in their first outing) at the rate they were jacking up shots.

And there was that stretch early in the fourth period when the team’s offense stagnated and they clearly ran out of ideas. You have to credit La Salle as they were daring us to shoot from the outside. Tyler Tio, who was simply superb for much of the game, began to dribble too much and use up the shot clock and no one knew what to do. 

Tab Baldwin showed faith in his boys to know what to do or to get out of a jam. On the flipside, I thought that he waited just a bit too long to bring back the starters.

For La Salle, after Ateneo’s early blitz, they struggled to find a combination to get them back in the game. In my opinion, their cadre of one-and-dones might hurt the team chemistry because I thought prior to their arrival, Kurt Lojera, Francis Escandor, Ralph Cu and Jordan Bartlett had done very well for them. Now, in my observation, their playing time has been cut. Jamie Malonzo is certainly a top find and a talent. He will get better as the league goes on.

It’s a jarring first game for them, but no one should underestimate La Salle. They still have a very good team and when they figure things out, they could do some serious damage.