My thoughts about Ateneo's 2nd round win vs Adamson

When I think of the Ateneo Blue Eagles’ 80-74 win over the Adamson Soaring Falcons last Wednesday at the Big Dome, it is good. 

Now with all due respect to the vanquished, this should have been by a bigger margin.

A part of that final margin can be attributed to the determination by Val Chauca and Jerrick Ahanmisi to rally their side. On the flip side, had Angelo Kouame played better, this would have been another spanking.

Granted he is young and not having fully reached his potential so you can somewhat let him off the hook Still it is surprising to see him indecisive at times and in being so, missing a lot of point blank stabs. And that’s two consecutive matches where he submitted a sub-par game. 

As I said, it has its good and bad.

Good because Isaac Go, Will Navarro, and Matthew Daves rose to the occasion.

Bad because, La Salle is up next and you know they are more than taking down notes. During the first round game, Kouame had a difficult time with the double-teaming and repeated attacks inside by the Green Archers. The onus is on him to break out and help his team against the streaking Green Archers. 

Ateneo’s defense was brilliant for the most part.

None the better when they forced successive violations late in the first quarter. 

At the 7:30 mark, the Blue Eagles forced an eight-second backcourt violation. Matt Nieto made them pay with a triple in the opposite end. In the next possession, they forced Adamson into a five-second inbound violation. 

The score at that point was 12-4. But two missed shots by Kouame that sandwiched a turnover by the Ivorian saw Adamson claw back, 12-8.

Late in the fourth period, Ateneo once more flashed its defensive fangs as Navarro blocked Chauca and converted on the other end to make it, 71-61. Ateneo then forced a 24-second shot clock violation. 

As for Adamson forward Simon Camacho… he isn’t the same after Kouame rejected all his love letters. It was Will Navarro this time who rejected two of his shots (he also fumbled a few others due to nerves).

With the score, 75-66 after a Kouame bucket, Ange turned the ball over that led to a Matt Nieto foul that was assessed an unsportsmanlike foul. Jerrick Ahanmisi hit both free throws. 

The defense on Chauca was very good. They limited the Fil-Peruvian to six points on 2-3 shooting. He didn’t have any daylight. There was that spotty foul called on Adrian Wong late in the game that saw Chauca troop to the line for a pair of free throws.

Ateneo then fumbled their way into a 24-second shot clock violation because of overpassing. Shockingly, Ateneo left an unmarked Ahanmisi open and the Adamson sniper drilled a triple to make it 75-71. Matt Nieto then hit two free throws as Adamson missed a bad shot. Adrian Wong tacked on one free throw to end the game. 

As good a win as it was, it was a bit annoying to allow Adamson an opportunity to steal it. 

It was also just annoying to see an Ateneo supporter become a side show when he refused to give the ball back to the referee (he was almost sent out for his trouble (wrongly though I must say). We do not need to be obnoxious. Teams are already trying to knock us off and the last thing we need is an ugly Atenean. The crowd was correct in telling off the refs and security but did this need to happen?

Back to the game.

I like how Thirdy was attacking that rack. If he plays like this, he is close to unstoppable. 

I’d like to ponder Mr. BIG -- Big Isaac Go as well as Will and Chew.

This was Isaac’s best effort this year. He was solid on defense and he hit some big shots. 

Will is finally fulfilling his promise as a big time player. He plays both ends of the court and I am just waiting for him to posterize someone. No, not that kind of dunk that he threw down against UST in Season 81 (over Zach Huang), but the one during Filoil Preseason Cup where he swooped in from a difficult angle then dunked on a couple of guys. They weren’t expecting it and it was a highlight play all right. 

Navarro finished with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 steal.

And there is Daves. Five years ago when I first saw him in the NBTC National Finals, I gave Joe Silva and Epok Quimpo a call (I was then working for the group as its media officer). I said they have to see this kid who was like a tank. He attacked the basket, could hit the trey, and would dunk on people. Then I helped arrange for that meeting inside the MOA Arena. I said this kid is going to be our power forward of the future. And Chew has been getting minutes (as I expected) and is starting to make an impact. Ateneo will need him versus La Salle that could possibly be a preview of the finals. 

It was a tough but good win. But you have to like it. As poor as the offense has been at times, the defense has been soli