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Analyzing Ateneo de Cebu’s win over San Beda in the NBTC Championship Game
analysis and pic by rick olivares
Was I surprised that the Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles
defeated San Beda for the National Basketball Training Center National
Championship?
No.
Here’s why.
Ateneo de
Cebu has a better frontline.
The strength of this batch of San Beda Red Cubs are
their guards – Andrei Caracut, Norrish Decapia, and Chami Diputado. Forwards Nikko
Abatayo and Kenneth Alas are a huge reason for their success in the past NCAA season especially the latter who came up big in the
second round. However, Alas
has not played for San Beda since the end of the NCAA season following a dispute
with head coach JB Sison. Now that’s one less inside operator for the Red Cubs. They felt the absence in the MMBL championship game against Chiang Kai Shek College and no doubt they were going to feel it against a taller Ateneo de Cebu squad.
No disrespect to Evan Furaque and Sam
Abuhijleh but they aren’t the second coming of Arvin Tolentino (but then again he
preferred to play outside) or even Javee Mocon (who played the three/four)
although they were serviceable in the past NCAA season.
In the MMBL Finals, the Red Cubs had a tough because Shannon Gagate, Jonas Tibayan, Scott
Aying, and Rafael Toribio were beasts inside. Furthermore, the CKSC Blue
Dragons are more balanced with outside threats like JV Gallego, Fran Yu, Van
Pilanga, and Memet Ascano and they were on target
So how did the Red Cubs beat the National University
Junior Bullpups in the semifinals of the NBTC when they have quite a frontline?
Simple. The bigs of NU didn’t play well. In fact, they haven't played well since Game One of the recent UAAP Juniors Basketball Championship. During the Bulldogs' semis loss to SBC, Justine
Baltazar finished with seven points, Mark Ferraras scored four points, and the
Vinces Saquian and Claveria had nothing. Power forward Mark Dyke finished with
11 points on 4-9 shooting from the field and 3-4 from the stripe. And when
Philip Manalang doesn’t play well it hurts his team.
As for the Magis Eagles – they’ve got quite a
frontline – Dominic Longa, Felix Jaboneta, Zach Huang, and Josh Sinclair. Save
for Huang, the other three can also shoot well from medium range to beyond the
arc. What makes them dangerous is they can drive to the basket and are very
active in and around the basket. Furthermore, they’re more mobile.
How did they get in even if they lost to Chiang Kai
Shek?
All tournament long, the Blue Dragons’ starting
frontline did not play well. That forced Aying and Toribio to play extended
minutes. Trying to reach the quotient of 14 points (to qualify for the finals)
threw their finely tuned offense out of whack. Instead of trying to play their
usual game, they got rattled with the quotient. It was a win but it was also a
loss since they didn’t qualify for the finals.
San Beda looked really pumped for their last game as
a team. The did their team dance and cheer near their bench. And early on, it
looked like the game was going to be over even before it got really started.
The Red Cubs started out like a house on fire as they
attacked the interior of the Magis Eagles. At one point, they posted an 18-2
lead and looked to be well on their way to a blow out. The problem for San Beda
started when they went to their bench. The Cebuanos roared back and nearly tied
it all as Jaboneta missed a triple attempt at the buzzer that would have
knotted it at 21-all if it had hit the bottom of the net.
San Beda found its second wind with the return of the
starters and they once more posted a 25-20 lead. Then Sinclair made his
presence felt inside with a variety of turn around jumpers, drives and putbacks
to tie the score for the first time at 29-all.
With less than three minutes to play in the second
period, San Beda guard Chami Diputado injured his knee while going after a
loose ball out of bounds. While trying to avoid the media table, he landed
awkwardly. He would not come back. No Alas. No Diputado. Norrish Decapia to the
rescue.
But Decapia who scored 15 second half points couldn’t
do it alone. With Caracut struggling with his shooting (5-15 from the field),
Abatayo was forced to play inside with Furaque and Abuhijleh ineffective (10
points between them). That put him in foul trouble and he did eventually foul
out.
Let me illustrate the problems San Beda had inside
the lane versus Ateneo.
Statistic
|
Ateneo de
Cebu
|
San Beda
|
Inside points
|
42
|
34
|
Total Rebounds
|
56
|
41
|
Offensive Rebounds
|
22
|
10
|
Layups/tip-ins*
|
10/19
|
11/16
|
Fastbreak points
|
16
|
10
|
The dreaded San Beda press was largely ineffective
against the Magis Eagles whose own press forced the Red Cubs into turnovers.
Ateneo – 8 steals + 25 turnover points
San Beda – 4 steals + 18 turnover points
Did the loss
of Chami Diputado hurt San Beda?
Most definitely.
If he stayed
in the game, would it have changed the outcome?
Am not so sure. Maybe. Maybe not. But I still think
it would come down to the frontline battle.
When the
chips were down, some others picked up the slack.
Decapia, Caracut, and Diputado put up good numbers
but they had no help after the latter went out.
As for Ateneo de Cebu?
Dominic Longa and Josh Sinclair carried them in their
matches against San Beda Team B and Chiang Kai Shek College. Longa was guarded
pretty well by San Beda but in his place, Zach Huang played huge and Felix
Jaboneta, a non-factor in the aforementioned matches, finally exploded scoring
27 points in 26.8 minutes of play!
And lastly,
Ateneo de Cebu wanted it more.
They hustled. They didn’t back down from San Beda as
they won the war of attrition (more so when Furaque tried to get under the skin
of Jaboneta although it backfired on the Red Cub). And they played with a lot
more energy.
So the Magis Eagles bring home their third NBTC
title. They won two when it was just a battle of provincial teams. But in the
past three years where Manila teams finally competed, they won their first NBTC
National Championship.
They’ve got a good program over there in Ateneo de
Cebu. Longa and Jaboneta are headed for UP while Huang is going to UST.
Even with these loses, they’re sure to come back with
even more talent on their squad.
----------------------------
Praying for Chami Diputado!
 |
| With my blue and white brothers from the south. |
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