Bleachers Brew: Ateneo vs. UST Round Two

The Fists
Ateneo 85 vs. UST 76
by rick olivares

August 14, 2008
Philsports Arena
With 8:02 to play in the second quarter and the UST Tigers down 24-13, Coach Pido Jarencio stood up and animatedly waved to get his troops’ attention. Rabeh Al-Hussaini and Nonoy Baclao were just substituted for Jobe Nkemakolam and Nico Salva. Jarencio, who was a gunners’ gunner back during his heyday, signaled “the fist” with his right hand. The play calls for the ball to be dumped to the Tigers’ first and possibly second option on offense -- their MVP center Jervy Cruz who shoots at an outrageously high percentage with a modicum of effort.

On that very play, Cruz bullied Mike Baldos for an and-one and scored 11 of UST’s next 13 points. By the time he was pulled out with 1:16 to play in the first half, the Ateneo lead had been cut down to 33-30.

Even before Cruz’ onslaught was over, Ateneo Coach Norman Black sent back his own tower of power, Al-Hussaini, back into the fray. As soon as the Ateneo center re-entered the game, he drilled in a jumper from the top of the key as if to tell Cruz that, “two can play that game.” And at times it seemed like it was the big center was taking on the entire UST team.

In truth, it’s really an old play. As long as the game has been played, the most basic is to throw the ball into the post and let your big man try and score. But “the Fist” is well out of an old Los Angeles Lakers playbook when they had Bill Sharman as the coach and an otherworldly center by the name of Wilt Chamberlain (Phil Jackson calls this, “feeding the Budhha”). Once “the Fist” was up, it was time to bring on the pain.

Pat Riley played on Sharman’s Lakers’ ’72 title squad with the Big Dipper and he brought that bread-and-butter play with him for championship runs with LA (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), New York (Patrick Ewing), and Miami (Alonzo Mourning and later Shaquille O’Neal). "The Fist" has since become part of hoops lexicon for a post play, and in the UAAP, it a sure sign of two points when the rock is handed over to Cruz.

Only people might want to reconsider that now that Al-Hussaini has begun to cast a big shadow on the league.

UST’s Big Man has had his fun and now it was time to pay the Piper.

After Cruz suckered Blue Eagle newbie Nico Salva for three-point play 46-44, Al-Hussaini’s drop step gave the team breathing room in the face of a withering UST assault. The Ateneo center, who is having a breakout season, matched every UST point with a bucket of his own. He scored 10 points and rejected a stab by Cruz. He even sent a missing persons report to España with a block on Khasim Mirza, thus far the dud of the year (after an explosive debut in Season 70). After Mirza’s reverse was foiled by Al-Hussaini, the UST forward rolled his eyes. Why can’t I catch a break, he seemed to ask as he meekly handed the ball to the referee.

Jarencio had seen Al-Hussaini earlier use FEU’s Reil Cervantes for target practice and this time around, he sent a double team the moment the Ateneo slotman got the ball. Only the 6’7” slotman is no longer Mr. Butterfingers but Mr. Goldfingers.

He chipped in 24 points, 5 rebounds, and in addition to 2 blocks, he had a 1 steal, 2 dime drops, and hold the presses… zero turnovers. That’s how far Carlo Sharma’s tall little brother has come. If he had only played like this last year or even the year before... who knows?

Al-Hussaini would add three more points in the fourth period, but by then, he would turn over the scoring cudgels to Eric Salamat, the team’s firestarter who finished with a stat line of 14 markers, 3 ribbies, 2 dishes, and 2 steals. Chris Ti no slouch himself, put on a clinical display of free throw shooting down the stretch to ice the game at 85-76. And the Ateneo captain top scored with 29 points.

While the final tally indicated total domination of the boards by UST, it happens to be just one of those misleading things about the game.

In their first round encounter. Norman Black started Al-Hussaini, Tiu, Ryan Buenafe, Jai Reyes, and Mike Baldos to counter Cruz, Francis Allera, Carlos Fenequito, Clark Bautista, and Mel Gile. Baldos was given the unenviable task of guarding Cruz as Nonoy Baclao came off the bench to guard the shifty Dylan Ababou. But trouble with that is UST is they are a tall team who can cause match-up problems.

With Baclao out on the perimeter, UST ruled the boards in the first round 58-42. Yet Ateneo’s stifling defense forced the Tigers into some atrocious shooting as their poor team play killed them.

There’s a prevailing debate amongst coaches to this day to let one player try and beat them while blanketing the rest. As former Phoenix Suns Assistant Coach (to Mike D’Antoni) Marc Iavaroni would hypothesize, “The more involved the superstar, the less involved his teammates. For every shot say, Kobe Bryant makes, the other guys are saying, ‘Oh, shit, Kobe’s doing it all again.’”

But as Dan D’Antoni (older brother of Mike) would riposte, “Why give him a chance to get off? Let’s say we’re going down the stretch and we’re two points up. And now you can’t turn Kobe off?”

From two point range, Cruz was 8-19 for a 42% clip. That’s eight more shots than Dylan Ababou who went 6 for 7. But with Baclao sticking close and already with a mind of what the high-leaping Tiger uses for a deodorant, Ababou was forced outside where he went 0-4 from beyond the arc. Clark Bautista was the only UST Tiger who shot better at 4-8 with a pair of them coming when the game was wrapped up.

In this second round tiff, Black later admitted to the same mistake in his early match-ups as UST clobbered Ateneo all the more from a rebounding standpoint (47 to a measly 29). “But we got them in the other departments such as shooting, assists, and playing defense,” said a relieved mentor.

Conventional wisdom will dictate that ruling the boards means a big chance to win the game. But with Nonoy Baclao's presence, the Blue Eagles presented an intriguing paradox.

The lanky Ateneo forward from West Negros finished with 1 point. But he collared 9 rebounds – half of Jervy Cruz’ total -- and added 2 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks.

How many shots did he alter? How many had second thoughts about taking shots inside? Along with the SWAT team of Al-Hussaini and Salva, foes can't afford to bring any weak-ass shit into the lane.

As the victorious Ateneo gallery sang the alma mater, UST Point guard Japs Cuan, who is clearly not himself after undergoing a knee injury, pulled Cruz aside. They were in a similar situation like this three years ago but they managed to win down the stretch where they dealt Ateneo a most painful finals loss. If UST harbors any more championship dreams, they will need the incumbent MVP to bring his A-game. As Cruz looked at the Blue Eagles with their raised fists, he looked at his opposite number – Rabeh Al-Hussaini. How far can the two of them tug their team along?

Ateneo 85 – Tiu 29, Al-Hussaini 24, Salamat 14, Austria 7, Reyes 4, Salva 2, Buenafe 2, Nkemakolam 2, Baclao 1, Baldos 0, Long 0

UST 76 – Cruz 23, Ababou 17, Bautista 12, Allera 7, Fortuna 6, Canlas 3, Mirza 2, Gile 2, Taylor 2, Cuan 2, Fenequito 0, Camus 0

Note:
Bumped into Rico Blanco during the game. He said his new album just came out and a tour should follow shortly. I wrote a story about Rivermaya about two years ago and I interviewed Rico at Dish where we chatted for a couple of hours after their gig. Nice to see you at the games again, dude (he just got back too from the US). "Gusto ko lang... mag-basketbol."