ATENEO clinched a league-record 13th-straight semifinal appearance but not without a serious scare from University of the East (UE).
The Blue Eagles struggled with their perimeter game and turned to slotman Greg Slaughter in pulling off a 74-70 escape over the Red Warriors on Thursday in the 74th University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.
UE came so close to securing back-to-back upsets after downing De La Salle in its previous game, 74-69, but the seven-foot Slaughter proved too much for the Red Warriors, especially in the closing minutes.
“It’s been a long while since we utilized the talent of Greg. We can’t get our perimeter game going so we just dumped the ball to our big guy,” said Ateneo head coach Norman Black.
“Give a lot of credit to UE. They played very tough and physical to disrupt our offense similar to their game against La Salle,” he added.
Slaughter tallied 19 points and 10 rebounds, his fifth double-double game of the season, to go along with his two blocks.
Emman Monfort added 13 points, six rebounds and six assists while Kiefer Ravena chipped in 12 markers, five boards and same number of feeds.
The Blue Eagles are unbeaten in 10 games and need one more win to secure a twice-to-beat incentive in the semifinals.
A sweep by Ateneo would give them a thrice-to-beat advantage in the finals. The last school to sweep the elimination was UE in 2007 but the incentive then was only an automatic berth in the finals. The Red Warriors were beaten by the Green Archers in the title series, 2-0.
Despite the win, Black warned his players to exert more effort, especially with their upcoming big game against La Salle on Sunday.
“We need a better practice. If you have an average practice, you’ll have an average game and we need to pick up the intensity in practice,” said Black. “And despite the record of La Salle, it’s always tough to play them.”
John Noble fired a career-high 21 points while Paul Zamar, the remaining member of that 2007 team, added 15 for UE, which fell to 2-8.
The Red Warriors were actually in the lead at halftime, 33-37, before Ravena, Monfort and Kirk Long joined hands in the third to give Ateneo a 56-49 lead going to the final quarter.
Noble’s basket pushed the red Warriors within four, 56-60, then Slaughter had seven in the Blue Eagles’ 12-8 exchange he capped by a slam for a 72-64 lead with 42.9 seconds remaining.
The Red Warriors refused to die as Noble and Zamar hit back-to-back three-pointers to threaten at 70-72 but Monfort sealed the win with two free throws.
In the second game, University of Santo Tomas (UST) withstood De La Salle’s endgame stand and secured an important 60-52 win to claim solo fourth spot.
Jeric Teng buried two crucial three-pointers in the stretch that gave the Growling Tigers the cushion and thwarted the late run of the Green Archers.
The win improved UST’s record to 5-5 and snapped De La Salle’s seven-game winning streak against the Tigers. The last time the España-based squad beat the Archers was on August 11, 2007, 81-73.
Teng fired a game-high 14 points with his two clutch triples giving them a 56-51 spread with 1:35 remaining.
After Norbert Torres split his free throws for De La Salle, 52-58, Jeric Fortuna, who struggled all game marked by a two-of-18 shooting from the field, sealed the win with a lay-up.
“Mabigat na panalo ito para sa amin dahil tabla kami ng De La Salle, pero hindi namin tinitingnan ang record, one game at a time muna kami at tingnan natin saan kami papunta,” said Growling Tigers head coach Pido Jarencio.
Chris Camus and Carmelo Afuang each had 10 markers for UST, which dominated De La Salle off the boards, 63-41.
Samuel Marata was the only Archer in double figures with 11. The Taft-based team dropped to fifth with 4-6 and will face unbeaten Ateneo on Sunday.
In Photo: Ateneo’s Kirk Long puts some English in his drive against University of the East’s Lucas Tagarda. (Nonoy Lacza)
