My thoughts about Ateneo’s 71-55 win over La Salle

My thoughts about Ateneo’s 71-55 win over La Salle

by rick olivares

By now everyone is looking at the points off turnovers (29-2) and the assists (14-3) total by the De La Salle Green Archers as the culprits for their 71-55 loss to Ateneo.

Sure. They count for a lot.

I’d like to look at a few more telling categories: three-point shooting (nothing less than 26% accuracy clip), assists total, bench points, turnovers and turnovers points. When Ateneo wins these statistical categories, they get the win.

Opponent	3-point shooting	Assists total	Bench Points	Turnovers	Points off Turnovers
Vs Adamson	8-35 (23%)	8-11 (in favor of Adamson)	29-28	19-21	8-15 (in favor of Adamson)
Vs UP	9-25 (36%)	20-16	24-14	16-17	16-10
Vs NU	10-35 (28%)	15-7	37-20	13-16	14-10
Vs UE	12-36 (33%)	24-15	42-28	20-17	20-14
Vs UST	8-30 (26%)	15-8	39-4	15-14	8-4
Vs DLSU	10-25 (40%)	14-3	22-24 (22-18 in the second half)	15-28	29-2

When Ateneo shoots well from three-point range, they have an excellent chance of winning. Sometimes, I worry too much about that because they tend to take a lot of shots from the outside when they should take it inside.

Did the Twin Towers combo of DLSU (Justine Baltazar and Brandon Bates) affect Ateneo?

I don’t think so. It was their execution which hurt them. In the early goings, they opted to once more shoot from the outside.

They took seven three-point attempts and hit two. La Salle in the meantime, showed their intent which is to attack the interior.

It wasn’t that Ateneo’s bench was non-existent. They just couldn’t buy a basket. They were getting good looks; the shots just weren’t dropping.

In the second half, the Blue Eagles’ bench dropped 22 points to the 18 of La Salle.

And speaking of the second half, it has been Ateneo’s domain (once more with the exception of the loss to Adamson)

Opponent	First half score	Point differential	Second half score	Point differential
Vs Adamson	39-40	-1	70-74	-3
Vs UP	46-43	+3	87-79	+5
Vs NU	26-18	+8	72-46	+18
Vs UE	43-31	+12	89-62	+25
Vs UST	37-18	+19	85-53	+13
Vs DLSU	28-21	+7	71-55	+9

Ateneo points average per half:

36.5 points average first half

42.5 points average second half

The Blue Eagles are posting average margins of victory by 18.0 points.

Angelo Kouame and Anton Asistio played outstanding on both ends of the court. Thirdy Ravena rebounded from a tough first quarter. He made a few bad decisions late in the game with poor passing but otherwise did very well. At the risk of oversimplifying myself, I’d say that Kouame was a massive different (they way Ben Mbala was for La Salle three years ago).

What I noticed with La Salle is how different they are now than when they took everyone by surprise during the summer.

They passed the ball a little more during the summer and averaged 16-plus assists per game. In six matches thus far, they are posting 13.6 assists per game. Not much ball movement and a lot of one-on-one play.

Granted it was the summer and teams haven’t really scouted one another, I can digress and say that Ateneo, UP, NU, FEU, and UE are playing the way they did back then. Adamson and UST have really played so much better.