Bummer: Looking at Ateneo’s second round loss to La Salle

Bummer: Looking at Ateneo’s second round loss to La Salle

by rick olivares

I was sure we had them. Instead, La Salle came away 64-62 winners to sweep the elimination round series for the first time since 2005 (Norman Black’s first year but both matches voided because of the Mark Benitez and Tim Gatchalian ineligibility issue). Or if you will, 2001, when the Green Archers achieved their four-peat.

Here’s looking at that match. Coldly and several hours after so that the initial raw emotions have died down.

Ateneo shot really poor.

This is one of those matches where the statistics do not begin to tell the whole story. Ateneo did better on almost every statistical category except in field goal shooting and free throws attempted.

La Salle shot better than Ateneo. 

The Blue Eagles attempted a whopping 76 times from the field and made 24 of them for 31.6% shooting. By contrast, the Green Archers had 57 attempts and connected on 22 of them (38.6%).

It was in the free throw department that was the huge difference.

La Salle had 28 shots but made 18 while Ateneo was 9-14.

We can say that there was a disparity in shots or even in fouls with attempts called but that essentially will come down to one’s willingness to take the game inside.

Early in the game, I was surprised that the boys kept taking shot after shot from the perimeter. Even into the third period, they kept doing that. I wondered, why don’t they take it in? The problem when you don’t make those outside shots is their zone will be a lot tighter as they dare us to beat them from the outside.

After Ryan Buenafe’s opening basket where he drove inside, we stopped doing that until the final 10 minutes of the game.

And that leads to the battle of the bigs.

Frank Golla, JP Erram, Vince Tolentino, and Ivan Enriquez managed to stay in the game unlike the first round encounter where the first two fouled out and Gboy Babilonia played an ineffective 12 minutes.

We didn’t get much production from the bigs in this game. Four points total as compared to the 10 they chipped in during the first round encounter. And this match was a whole lot closer than that.

However to their credit, they held down Norbert Torres and Arnold Van Opstal to 10 points (the duo scored a combined 28 in the first round). Jason Perkins hit some huge shots to make up for their centers’ lack of production though.

I am not surrendering that we are not going to get anything more from the bigs. If we want to beat La Salle (wow there’s something I have said in over five years), the bigs need to come up big. In the pre-season win, one huge factor was Frank Golla hitting shots and moving well without the ball.

They need to reciprocate that for us to have a chance.

The Phenom is human.

Kiefer Ravena played his worst game since his first UAAP seniors game (where he didn’t score a point). Today, Kief finished with 12 points but that was on 4-13 field goal shooting while hitting 3-8 from the free throw line. There were uncharacteristic turnovers including about two in a row that was sandwiched a terrible miss. Some of his shots were forced and he airballed a few.

However, when he hit that huge triple at the 8:47 mark of the fourth period to give the Blue Eagles a five-point lead, the cheers on the Ateneo side were deafening. It was like ‘at last’ and ‘Go, Kief!’ I was hoping that was the turning point and we’d beat La Salle now.

In the Green Archers’ next possession, they got a stop and the ball went right back to Ravena who unfortunately, airballed another triple attempt.

Watching him from afar, his early miscues and missed shot attempts told on his body language.

It would be highly unrealistic to expect him to play every game and stuff the stat sheet.

It has been a trying season for the junior. He suffered an uncharacteristic foot injury -- his first major one of his young career – before the start of the season and struggled to find his rhythm in the next couple of games before finding his groove towards the end of the first round.

Even if he struggled in the game, you know that he’ll try to do something to pull off a win. That big time drive to notch the count for one last time says a lot about his determination.

You can be sure he’ll bounce back from this.

I’d like to credit La Salle’s defense but not too much.

In the midst of that thrashing of FEU, I had a thought – I hope we save some for La Salle. Almost from the beginning, the boys were missing shots from the outside. With no deadeye shooter and Juami Tiongson perhaps the one legitimate threat from the outside, the Green Archers threw a shifting zone to prevent any drives. What I do not get is why weren’t high picks to free up someone. I felt rather than whip that ball around, we played tentative.

La Salle attacked the interior. The bigs – Frank Golla, JP Erram, and Ivan Enriquez fared better this time as they didn’t foul out. They stopped Norbert Torres and Arnold Van Opstal but Jason Perkins hit huge medium range shots including a triple late in the game.

In the meantime, the Blue Eagles preferred to hoist shots from the outside. Granted we do not have a legit post-up threat, we should have attacked them.

We lost our composure.

We seemed to be on the short end of the calls with some dubious ones.

When Ryan Buenafe picked up his second foul, Jason Perkins was bodying him up.

The funny thing was, the ref was right in front of them. He warned them both. Then in the next play, Perkins bumped Ryan who bumped right back. Incredibly, Buenafe was the one whistled by the ref.

More often than not, the retaliation is the one that is caught. While this happened right in front of the referee who was blind to the initial bump, as a veteran, Ryan should not be baited into this.

In one instance, Jeron Teng drove where he somewhat pushed off on his drive. JP Erram was called for the foul in which he and the Ateneo coaching vehemently protested. In La Salle’s next attack, Erram rather clumsily fouled Teng once more.

It was a useless foul and one that led to a three-point play.

Did the technical foul on Bo Perasol cost Ateneo the game?

Maybe. Because the final margin was two points.

Maybe not. Because the team was in a position to go ahead but Ryan Buenafe missed a drive (because he was pushed).

If the team had done a little better at the free throw line. If the team had opted to attack inside instead of shooting from the perimeter then maybe the team could have eked out a win.

When Coach Bo went to the court to confront the referee over the calls. I immediately thought about Norman Black last year in the second round Ateneo-UST match and Joe Lipa in the Final Four of 2000.

Norman stormed the floor to protest the poor officiating. Surprisingly, he wasn’t assessed a technical foul and Ateneo went on to win the game.

Lipa on the other hand was pissed at two things (in my opinion). He was angry with the Blue Eagles for not playing well and at the referees because of you know what. Coach Joe infamously threw a chair on to the Ninoy Aquino Stadium court. Mikko Roldan went on to hit the game winning shot versus Ateneo.

And well, in this game, Jeron Teng hit the game winner with 1.9 seconds left.

I guess the lesson is to not get those kind of T’s.

Having said that, getting teed up can also be a tactic to fire up a team. Ryan responded to that by hitting a triple to come within one point, 62-63. But in the next sequence, he was called for a blocking foul on Teng.

In Perasol’s first UAAP game, I thought the learning process from the pros to the amateurs and the pressure of being head coach of Ateneo got to him. He sat. Was oft quiet with Sandy Arespacochaga doing a lot of talking and standing up.

In Ateneo’s next game, perhaps he heard the grumblings, he stood up more and called for more instructions. He’s grown into the role and has really put his stamp on this team. In Ateneo’s last game (against FEU), he should have been resting owing to his operation for the removal of his kidney stones but he attended practice and the game. No excuses even if he was clearing wincing in pain on the bench (against Adamson). This game, he showed a lot of emotion. Some might call him out for the technical levied against him. but he is doing just fine.

Look. We may have lost the battle. But it is not yet the war. We’re at 6-5 with UE, NU and UST on the horizon. It’s gut check time.

What I want to see is how Ateneo bounces back from this loss.

After that thrashing by NU to open the season, Ateneo played more or less a good game against FEU before succumbing in the end game.

And then there was that first round match against La Salle where we were leading by 17 before we ran into foul trouble and lost our bigs and then the game.

That game was followed by a victory over Adamson that was playing well up to that point aside from being the leading rebounding team.

Ateneo lost to UE before taking five of the next games.

I want to see how the Blue Eagles respond against UE (that is also wounded) on Saturday.

It is not yet over, guys. The guys in green got these games. Let’s work to get them back.

OBF!!!!!!