Breaking down EAC’s win over San Sebastian

Breaking down EAC’s win over San Sebastian

by rick olivares

For the second consecutive match, I tracked the offensive output of the Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals with regards to their offense and their pass count before shooting. Check out the previous tracking article here. 

Previously, I theorized that it was in their best interests to push the ball up and score within the first three passes as opposed to setting up their halfcourt game that gave them all sorts of trouble as they didn’t have anyone to break down defenses.

This time, against the San Sebastian Stags, they took a higher volume of shots within the first three passes, scored more, and well, they won the game, 77-71. Of course, we will track them some more because two matches that we tracked doesn’t mean the theory is golden.

Passes	Attempts where they scored (includes free throws)	Attempts missed (includes blocks)	Fouls / broken up plays	Turnovers
One-three passes	17	29	7	18
Four or more passes	10	17	2	3

·      This tally does not include 24-second shot clock violations, put backs, or free throws off where a pass did not occur.

Aside from the quicker offense, the Generals play better when forward Sidney Onwubere and center Laminou Hamadou are on the floor. They were lucky they had a lead when Onwubere fouled out (with three of those fouls phantom fouls in my opinion).

Hamadou’s presence negated the inside game of the Stags’ Bradwyn Guinto who had his way when the Cameroonian went to the bench in the second quarter.

The EAC center scored some big points when SSCR was threatening and Jose Morada hit a big triple to ease the pressure.

As for San Sebastian, with Hamadou inside, the Stags had to settle for shooting from the perimeter. They jacked up a large number of triples with a lot coming during crunch time. Stags’ gunner Jon Ortuoste, who could be the second coming of Roi Sumang, got going for a brief moment in the second half but he kind of scattered his points. 

My earlier observation about Guinto having a tough time against the taller Hamadou, of course, he will have a tougher time. The height disparity is going to hurt. Guinto is one of the better bigs in the game despite being undersized. He has a good passing touch with deft moves inside the paint. But he scored most of his points in the second period and didn’t have much of an impact in the payoff period.