Ateneo Blue Eagles Game 2 Steal A Win

Steal A Win

Ateneo 69 vs. Adamson 66

words by rick olivares pic by raddy mabasa

The weight of expectations

The ride to the Philsports Arena from Manila was more or less quiet for the Adamson Falcons. They were brimming with confidence over their opening day slaughter of National University and they eagerly looked forward to playing the defending champs on an overcast Thursday.

The streak of having lost 25 straight matches over a period of 13 UAAP seasons to the Ateneo Blue Eagles somewhat weighed on their mind. Banter was light as they were focused on the task at hand. Their pre-season victory over Ateneo gave them some confidence heading into the match but that was tempered by head coach Leo Austria’s repeated warnings that the UAAP season was an altogether different animal.

Forward Jan Colina was confident but expressed concern that not all his teammates believed they could win. Was it the streak or the fact that Ateneo was a two-time champ? Colina thought it was both. “Sila (the Blue Eagles) yung model naming pagdating sa consistency. Nandun na sila. Kami papunta pa lang.”

For the Blue Eagles, some took the school shuttle while others brought their own vehicles. The team doesn’t lose very often and the opening day meltdown against FEU was a new experience for some. The coaching staff worked to make sure that it was only a memory and that they were focused on another tough foe.

Forward-center Jason Escueta ambled on to the court for some warm-ups. He shook hands with some supporters and made a promise, “We’ll get this game.”

With 6:33 left in the game, the game seemed to getting out of the Blue Eagles’ grasp.

Adamson held a six-point lead over Ateneo 63-57. The San Marcelino-based squad came roaring back to tie the game at 52-all on a dunk by Alex Nuyles at the end of the 3^rd Quarter. Their physical defense of bumping and bodying up on the Blue Eagles reaped dividends. Ateneo, for the second consecutive game, struggled to get going when their perimeter shooting had failed. Falcon guard Lester Alvarez and Jerick Cañada relentlessly shadowed Ateneo’s shooters leaving not an ounce of daylight to launch a shot from the three-point arc.

Ateneo had made three treys in the first half off six attempts. But Adamson, because of their height advantage, took the game inside and that gave them the space to fire away 12 times from the outside while connecting in 5.

Nuyles continued his onslaught with a trifecta of his own and a conventional and-one off plodding Ateneo center JP Erram for a 58-52 lead.

The score was 8:34 in the fourth and the Falcons’ confidence was soaring. “Kunin na natin,” exhorted Nuyles as the Blue Eagles sued for time.

And at that 6:33 mark, things began to look dire when Emman Monfort badly missed a desperation three as the 24-second shot clock sounded. Monfort looked up at the scoreboard, cast a look of displeasure over at the referees, and then got back down on defense.

On their next possession, the Falcons showed how three-point shooting is done as Alvarez dropped one through the cords for a 63-57 advantage.

A taste of their own medicine

Since the Blue Eagles have been under Norman Black, they’ve always let their defense jumpstart their offense. And now with the game on the line as the Falcons were threatening to run away with the lead, they harried their foe with their own version of in-your-face defense.

Earlier, Escueta missed three point blank stabs and every time out he chastised himself. In the midst of a 6-0 run where he played the pick and roll to perfection with Ryan Buenafe, he made his shot to tie the match for the last time at 63-all with time down to less than two minutes.

Now on defense, it was time to turn the tables on the physical Falcons. Monfort bumped Alvarez at the top of the arc while trying to poke the ball away. Rattled, the Falcon guard lost it and his Atenean counterpart quickly snatched the ball away.

In Adamson’s next possession, Kirk Long left his man to meet the Falcons’ Kenyan center Austin Manyara by the arc. In one motion, Long stripped the Adamson bigman of the ball and gave Ateneo a chance to seize the lead.

Although Long misfired on a jumper, Monfort pulled down the offensive board while being fouled by Alvarez.

With both sides in penalty, Monfort made six straight free throws to a point by Adamson’s Roider Cabrera and a bucket by Nuyles. And with a chance to send the game into overtime,  Camson missed a three just when they needed it the most.

“Hindi ko inisip na ma-0-2 tayo. Basta, I just did everything I had to get the win for us.” said Monfort after the game.

“We expect a tough game every time we play Adamson,” added Black. “Since I’ve been with Ateneo, there was only one game where we blew them out. Everything has been close. So we expect a tight game. They are obviously well coached and they have some very good players. And I believe that Eric Camson is one of the best players in the league right now and I had no choice but to put Nico Salva on him.”

As the Falcons filed out to their team bus, there were hardly any smiles. Colina, who scored 9 points and pulled down 6 boards, tried to be optimistic. They had pushed the defending champs to the limit. But it has been like that for the three years he’s been with Adamson – they hang tough but it hasn’t been enough.

Ateneo 69 – Long 12, Salva 10, Salamat 10, Buenafe 10, Monfort 8, Escueta 7, dela Cruz 3, Golla 3, Erram 2, Tiongson 2, Austria 2, Gonzaga 0

Adamson 66 – Nuyles 18, Alvarez 17, Colina 9, Manyara 7, Cañada 5, Stinnett 3, Cabrera 3, Lozada 2, Camson 2, Monteclaro 0, Galinato 0




Note: The three referees who worked the game -- Lucio dela Torre, Dominic Pomar and Glenn Cornello were suspended by UAAP Commissioner  Ato Badolato for bad calls and missed calls.