Vengeful Ateneo routs La Salle in UAAP re-match

Still smarting from a heart-breaking loss in their last match-up, Ateneo made sure archrival La Salle would have no chance of catching up. The vengeful Blue Eagles led from start to finish, and posted a surprisingly easy 74-57 triumph Sunday in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament at a sold-out Araneta Coliseum. Ateneo guard Kirk Long delivered 22 points, including clutch baskets that led to Ateneo’s early breakaway. In front of 15,632 well-coiffed fans clad in their respective school colors, the Blue Eagles exhibited a stifling zone defense, pinpoint passing, and 37% shooting from beyond the arc. Their teamwork was perhaps best displayed in the third quarter when Long hurled a court-length pass that guard Erik Salamat caught in stride in the lane. He instantly fed the ball to a trailing Nico Salva, who was fouled on the play.

The Green Archers shot just 11 percent from the 3-point line, and got little production from starters Joshua Webb and Philip Paredes. Webb scored zero points, while center Paredes only grabbed four rebounds, even less than the smallest player on the court, Ateneo's Emman Monfort who pulled down seven boards. Substitute Mark Mendoza led La Salle's scoring with 20 points, ten of those on free throws. In their first-round victory over Ateneo, La Salle demolished a nine point deficit in the last three minutes. In this game, the Blue Eagles did not relax. A dizzying 25-2 run in the first quarter by the Katipunan-based dribblers gave them their first sizable lead, 29-11, and they were never seriously threatened after that. Long knocked down three 3-pointers in the first quarter. "The game becomes a lot easier when we hit our outside shots and Kirk did a great job knocking down those shots," said Ateneo coach Norman Black. Long was also credited with shackling Sam Marata and Simon Atkins, who were limited to a combined nine points. "The first couple of minutes, I felt like they came out with a lot of intensity, but we were able to match that and we were able to execute on both ends," said Long, who will also play baseball on the school's varsity team during the second semester. Ateneo also got solid contributions from rookie frontliner Art dela Cruz, Ryan Buenafe, Emman Monfort and Frank Golla. Dela Cruz posted career-highs of 10 points and 10 rebounds, Buenafe had nine points, five rebounds and six assists, Monfort garnered seven points, seven rebounds and six assists, and Golla contributed six points and four boards. All of them, except for Buenafe, were substitutes. "We tried to develop a second unit the entire year to keep them ready once our starting unit gets into foul trouble," Black added. “Today, the second unit was able to step up." La Salle shot just 29-percent from the field and trailed at the half, 21-39. The Archers made only 2-for-18 from beyond-the-arc. "I don't know what happened. It was like a nightmare," La Salle coach Dindo Pumaren said. "We had a bad start and we didn't play La Salle basketball." Mendoza was the lone double-digit scorer for La Salle with 20 points while adding six boards in just 16 minutes off the bench. The rest of the starters combined for a woeful 19 points. Also struggling were rookies Jarelan Tampus and Almond Vosotros, the two players that made solid contributions in the team's last two victories. Tampus had five points while Vosotros failed to score a single point. The loss was La Salle's 10th to the Eagles in their 13 head-to-head match-ups since the start of the 2007 season, the same year the green-and-white won the title. - HS, RCJ, GMANews.TV