A Taste of Blue Mayhem: Ateneo's 85-53 win over UST

A Taste of Blue Mayhem

by rick olivares

On May 29, 2016, Aldin Ayo’s DLSU team featuring Ben Mbala clobbered Ateneo in the Filoil Flying V Premier Cup, 98-66.

Mbala, in his first Ateneo-La Salle game finished with 28 points, 16 rebounds, and three blocks. Ayo (in)famously said after the game as DLSU went to 5-0 that they were not sending a message but working on their team chemistry.

That was incidentally, was Tab Baldwin’s first Ateneo-La Salle game. Baldwin had his revenge last year when he upended Ayo, Mbala, and DLSU for the title.

And now, with a pretty damn good big man of his own, the Ateneo Blue Eagles blew out Ayo’s UST Growling Tigers, 85-53. Also 32-point blowout and a taste of blue mayhem. Tit for tat.

That Ateneo big man? Angelo Kouame finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 assist. In under 20 minutes of play. Imagine if he played more minutes what kind of stats he would have posted.

In that pre-season match of three seasons ago, Ateneo shot a measly 39%. This time, the tables were turned as UST shot 26%.

Ateneo outrebounded UST 50-41 and scored 29 second chance points to the Growling Tigers’ 17. The Blue Eagles blocked 10 shots to UST’s 2.

The defense was outstanding. For the first time since the pre-season of 2017, Ateneo sprung a press. The switching was so good that UST had few open looks. The Tigers only hit five triples, but they were scattered and their effect wasn’t felt.

The Blue Eagles also held the dangerous Ken Zamora and the up and coming Joshua Marcos scoreless, and the team’s third leading scorer in Marvin Lee nine points below his average.

The 18 points scored by UST in the first half are a season low for any team. The eight points scored by the Growling Tigers in the second period are a season low (Ateneo also held NU to 8 points in one quarter). The previous season low for UST was nine points… against NU (the third period).

Those same 18 points are the lowest output of any UST team for a half in a while.

UST showed their hand right off the bat to attack Ateneo and they got some quick points inside. But when Ateneo spread UST’s defense after some early outside shots by Matt Nieto and Thirdy Ravena posting up his man, the Tigers were easy pickings.

What I liked was also how Tab Baldwin rotated his bench. Can you believe that Will Navarro was the only one who played 20 minutes? A shade over actually. Only BJ Andrade and Jolo Mendoza played fewer than 10 minutes. But Jolo went out because Marvin Lee tried to take him out. As a result, he was the only Blue Eagle not to be listed in the scoring ledger.

With Raffy Verano unavailable (he will be ready for the next game), I like Navarro starting for this game and Matt Daves getting meaningful playing time that will really help his confidence. That dunk of his? That wasn’t his best by a long shot having covered and followed him while playing for Crossover Canada in the NBTC League for three seasons. Trust me. When he gains more confidence, those rack attacks will be filled with menace.

And speaking of confidence, Kouame’s game has grown with every game and he has been nothing short of amazing.

But in terms of a breakout game, it was SJ Belangel’s turn (7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block) as he began to show the stuff he displayed with the Blue Eaglets. And it was great to see Tyler Tio play better and with more confidence. His buzzer beating shot to end the first half was exhilarating.

Adrian Wong struggled once more with his decision making (he dribbled a bit too much and by the time he decided to move the shot clock was perilously close to a violation). He did redeem himself with a huge triple to snuff out any notions of a rally by UST.

For the blue and white, it was a huge ad satisfying win (given the rivalry with Ayo) that propels them to the next outing… against La Salle.

Ange Kouame was chosen as the Player of the Game and rightfully so.