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| Aristote Mutombo smothers the drive of NU's Alfred Aroga. |
Breaking down CEU’s
huge win over NU
by rick olivares pic by kc cruz
CEU Scorpions head coach Edgar Macaraya downplayed
his team’s 61-58 win over NU in last Wednesday’s match in the Filoil Flying V
Hanes Premier Cup. The win, CEU’s fifth straight practically put them in the
driver’s seat for a quarterfinals berth while NU, despite taking the loss to
drop to 3-1, still looks to qualify for the knockout stages.
“It’s not a statement,” pronounced Macaraya. With all
due respect, he’s both right and wrong.
He’s right because it’s a pre-season tourney and
teams are stilling trying to look for combinations and test their players. Furthermore,
his team is stacked with veterans while NU lost eight veteran players and are
now led by players who didn’t get much playing time last season (the only two
players to log in serious minutes were Troy Rosario and Gelo Alolino).
He’s wrong because his Scorpions have beaten teams
from the NCAA, UAAP, and Mindanao. It gives you pause to look at his team and
say, “Hey, they’ve got some pretty good players here.”
And given how St. Clare College came within a basket
of defeating Letran, there is talent outside the country’s two most prestigious
leagues.
Both teams came out with great defensive intensity.
Let me correct that – they played flat out smothering defense.
As an example, the first period score – 7-5 in favor
of CEU – is an all-time Filoil low. The Scorpions shot 3-17 for 18% while NU
managed only one bucket in 14 attempts (14%).
The Scorpions’ Aristote Mutombo also typified that
defense. In his 17 minutes of the floor – the most in CEU’s five matches – he didn’t
score a point missing his only two shots. The only other numbers to show up in
the stat sheet are his seven rebounds and four fouls. But he made life
difficult for NU – taking away a crucial aspect of the Bulldog’s game – their
ability to get into the lane and run.
CEU’s shifting man-zone killed the dribble drive of
NU, leaving them to force up shots.
CEU pulled down 46 rebounds to NU’s 41. The Scorpions
also had 20 offensive boards – double NU’s. The result – three measly fastbreak
points for the Bulldogs. I assure you they average much more than that.
Macaraya wasn’t able to get the usual games of Rod
Ebondo and Alvin Abundo and this is what makes the victory even more
significant is Samboy De Leon, Joseph Sedurifa, Aaron Jeruta, and Jason Opiso
came up huge in this win. They picked the team up when their stars didn’t have
it.
Aroga was clearly bothered by the defense of Ebondo
and Mutombo much like Charles Mammie neutralized him in last year’s Filoil
finals. Glenn Khobuntin has a subpar game as he finished with only four points.
I was surprised that Rosario didn’t return earlier in the fourth period.
It was Rev Diputado who played well for NU.
What they also did right was to do what they do best
which is attack the basket. After a while they got CEU into penalty except they
wilted at the free throw line. They had 31 attempts from the free throw line
botching 11.
In fairness to CEU, if they made at least two free
throws in the final minute then it couldn’t have come down to the last shot.
There’s lot to learn from this game for both sides.
But more than the stats, the one thing you can take away from this is that CEU
and the other provincial teams are for real.
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