Ateneo Blue Eagles: Learning to fly again Part One (getting that first win against Adamson)

Learning to Fly Again Part One

Ateneo notches its first win of UAAP S76

by rick olivares

When this UAAP Season 76 started, I thought of my second favorite sports team outside of the Ateneo Blue Eagles and that is the New York Yankees.

The Yanks have been hard hit by departures of key free agents as well as injuries to their top stars. This year, they fielded a team of the unlikeliest of players who have miraculously kept them head above water in a very competitive American League East.

When Kiefer Ravena went down with a foot injury, I changed my first week’s prognosis of 3-0 to 0-3. It is not because I do not have any faith in the team. Well I do. Boatloads of it. But I had to realistically look at a team that never had one game where everyone was available and healthy. Dating back to the summer, it seemed that someone was always out with some injury. And some key players were just getting back in the circulation of things. So losing Ravena was definitely going to hurt the offense and the rotation.

So in my best Joe Torre (the former and sainted Yankee manager who said something similar prior to New York’s 1996 World Series campaign) impression, I figured aloud in Blue Eagle 40, “Hell, maybe we’ll win one; maybe we’ll lose all three. But we’ll get the next one.

This season for New York they did well then ran into the wall; losing a bunch of games that dropped them from first place to fourth. Then came their long time foil, the Minnesota Twins and those wins got them going again.

So without meaning to sound cruel (as I like and root for the Adamson Falcons – just not against Ateneo), down 0-3, on deck were those Adamson Falcons whose albatross has been the Blue Eagle.

Ateneo had a 29-game win streak going against Adamson but that was snapped in the final elimination round match of Season 74. I felt that it was an aberration, no direspect there, and that the streak had to end at some point. I wrote back then that Ateneo would continue its streak the following season. And they did as they blanked the Falcons in Season 75. And well, they were poised to continue that this year, 3-0 or 0-3.

Confidence is something you want to gain and do not want to give. When a player gains that and does well and he repeats it then he’ll be hard to stop. Just ask Rabeh Al-Hussaini or even Arnold Van Opstal. The two wins over Adamson last year will have to play in their minds even if it’s a new season. You keep the pressure up and the old doubts come creeping right back in.

Yes, the Falcons were coming off a terrific game where they defeated the struggling UE Red Warriors but I felt their inconsistencies gave the Blue Eagles a fighting chance. The thing about Adamson is not to give their gunners like Roider Cabrera, Harry Petilos, and Don Trollano some daylight to shoot. Jay Cruz would be a handful but he always is because of his inside and outside game. If Ateneo needed to do one other thing it was to attack them and not sit back and wait for the Falcons to dictate the pace of the game. 

Sure they had the massive Ingrid Sewa inside but having Rodney Brondial play outside meant that another solid defensive player out on the wings (that reminded me of Noy Baclao having to chase Dylan Ababou out on the wings leaving Rabeh Al Hussaini by himself to protect the rim) where he couldn't help guard the lane.

So how did Ateneo pull off this win?

We finally won a third quarter.

The third quarter has been the bane of this Blue Eagle team when it was previously their strength (in making adjustments).

In the first three games, the team scored 11, 11 and 16 points in the third period. However, the opposing team dropped 17, 22, and 31. Ouch.

This time Ateneo took that pivotal period, 25-19, and in doing so, won three of the four quarters of a game.

Heading into the match against Adamson, Ateneo had won only four of the 12 quarters played against NU (0-4), FEU (2-4 and in the first half), and La Salle (2-4 also in the first half). With the exception of the opening day loss to NU, the other two losses were winnable until Ateneo fell apart.

The Blue Eagles were more consistent in this game. They needed that third quarter stand and I felt they took a really good shot from Adamson and held firm. That enabled them to finish strong.

The bench came up huge.

Basketball to put it in its most simplistic terms is to score more points than the opposing team. The team has struggled to put points on the board when it needed to. For the second consecutive match, we had four players in double figures.

But here is an important stat: the starters scored 44 points while the bench added 27.

In the first three matches, this is has been the disparity between the starters and the bench:

Against NU: Starters 36 points      Bench 18 points

Against FEU: Starters 69 points    Bench 12 points

Against DLSU: Starters 64 points  Bench 9 points

So you bet the bench was huge. During the post-match press con, I asked Ateneo coach Bo Perasol about something I noticed, at one point in the second half, there was no Ryan Buenafe, no Chris Newsome, and certainly no Kiefer Ravena on the court.

It was an unusual five on the floor and they held fast.

I recall in Season 71, Norman Black had at least Chris Tiu or Rabeh Al Hussaini on the floor at all times. Ditto in the past two seasons with Greg Slaughter or Nico Salva or Kiefer Ravena because you always wanted a primary scorer to lead the way.

Welcome to a new era of Ateneo basketball. And it’s to draw out performances from the bench. Gwyne Capacio played the most minutes in a UAAP Seniors game and he might have only scored four points but his defensive presence against Roider Cabrera helped (to a point).

Plus, hopefully JP Erram has broken out of his funk. JP tallied 12 points, 12 rebounds and one block. This was the Erram we saw last year.

Of course, it wasn't all offense. They played great defense as well.

We outrebounded the top rebounding team in the UAAP.

Adamson has been averaging 52.2 rebound per game. Furthermore, foes only haul down 35.0 rebounds against them. Those numbers are tops in the league. Any time you grab more rebounds, you get more possessions and well that means you get the opportunity to run on the break.

For this match, Ateneo beat them 49-37 (of course Ingrid Sewa having shoulder problems had him playing only 23 minutes when he averages 35 minutes a game) but beggars cannot be choosers.

And because of those boards, Ateneo scored 11 fastbreak points. The most it has had this year. This is where you want them to be – on the break.

Ryan Buenafe.

Near triple double 11-12-9 to go with one steal and two turnovers. A very economical performance. He’s been averaging a double double this season with 15.2 points and 10.7 rebounds per game.

There are only two other players averaging a double double and that is NU’s Jean Mbe who is norming 15.6 points and 12.6 rebounds and UE's Charles Mammie with 10.3 points and 15.3 rebounds per game (UST’s Karim Abdul comes close in rebounds with 9.5 per game). So this is already a terrific achievement for Ryan. 

Buenafe is second behind Terrence Romeo’s league leading 5.2 with 5.0 per game. That roughly translates into at least 10 points.

The team certainly needs his playmaking more so with Kiefer Ravena still on the mend.

It’s a big win to avoid dropping into a 0-4 hole. Now let’s see if they follow this up with another W in order to get going.

How do I see the remaining games of the first round? We can win two more and maybe lose one. But the second round will be much better. Now I hope the Blue Eagles make a liar out of me and do better than that. 

OBF!!!!!!