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!!!!!!
