Ateneo defeats DLSU 81-69: A win is a win but it has this but…

A win is a win but it has this but…

by rick olivares

It’s a big win no doubt. Any win you can get against La Salle is always good. However, there is a part of me that feels a wee bit unsatisfied with this 81-69 triumph.

I don’t think La Salle has what it takes to beat us this year and this was a great opportunity to bury them. And the Blue Eagles did, at least in the first half by 22 points. The inevitable La Salle run came and although the team handled it well at first, turnovers and I thought a missed moment that deserved a substitution, and ugly offense saw the Green Archers launch a stirring comeback.

I can overlook the subpar outing by Thirdy Ravena and Angelo Kouame (he played well defensively though), but there were things I didn’t like at all. We will get to that in a bit.

I thought that this was a great opportunity to really give them pause to think about their team and their strategy of acquiring transferees and one-and-dones. Instead, many opine that if it weren’t for the second quarter cushion that was built, the Green Archers could have caught up.

Maybe. Maybe not.

I thought that La Salle had an excellent game plan. They threw a zone that at times placed three men atop the key to stop any drives. And on offense, they attacked every chance they got. Jamie Malonzo (who will get even better as he soaks in more experience) even posterized Thirdy Ravena while Encho Serrano scored on an and-one on Matt Nieto. Basically, everyone was attacking the interior regardless of the presence of Angelo Kouame.

After that Malonzo dunk on Thirdy and he started jawing against #0, I thought back to a pair of incidents… Joshua Webb talking smack to the Blue Eagles and then Ryan Buenafe putting his arm around the Archer and pointing to the scoreboard, and when Robert Bolick Jr. was a rookie for DLSU. Bolick forced Ravena to a turnover and began clipping in his face. That lit up Blue Mamba and he scored 31 points on Bolick and everyone else who was put in front of Ravena.

Just to clarify, Thirdy scored on a twisting drive and hit a jumper after the Malonzo dunk, but after that, he didn’t do much. Luckily, his teammates made up for the lack of offense and helped to make this a W.

Speaking of offense, the previous year, I pointed out how Ateneo tends to shoot a lot from the outside. When it goes it, it looks pretty, but when it doesn’t such as the game against La Salle, it gets ugly. Granted those were the looks La Salle was giving the team. But still, why not attack the interior instead of settling for jump shots? For a bit there, I was afraid that Ateneo would break UST’s number of attempts from the three-point arc (49 in their first outing) at the rate they were jacking up shots.

I noticed how our bigs grab the offensive board and then pass the ball out instead of immediately attacking the interior. If that is what is asked of them to do, well….  

And there was that stretch early in the fourth period when the team’s offense stagnated and they clearly ran out of ideas. You have to credit La Salle as they were daring us to shoot from the outside. Tyler Tio, who was simply superb for much of the game, began to dribble too much and use up the shot clock and no one knew what to do. 

I like that Tab Baldwin shows faith in the boys to know what to do or to get out of a jam. On the flipside, I thought that he waited just a bit too long to bring back the starters.

I like that he had faith in Thirdy to get the job done even if he was painfully off. With William Navarro cramping up, it was up to Mike Nieto and Gian Mamuyac to save the day.

Mike hit some big shots including that turn around j while Mamu simply took it to La Salle. That’s the way… attack. The Blue Eagles’ defense and the individual brilliance of some players saved the day.

Gripes aside, this was still a very good win. It kept Ateneo abreast of dangerous UST as the only unbeaten sides in the league.

We all know that the new season is still young and that the team can only get better.