Ildefonso powers Eaglets past Tiger Cubs

Up against the league’s top scorer, Ateneo coach Joe Silva drew up a simple gameplan for the Blue Eaglets: Shut down University of Santo Tomas star John Cansino and the rest of the Tiger Cubs will struggle.

And that’s exactly what happened yesterday when Ateneo made life miserable for the 6-foot-1 Cansino all game long, leading to an easy 78-54 victory that stretched its perfect start to eight games in the UAAP Season 80 juniors basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.

Dave Ildefonso led their balanced attack with a game-high 20 points while towering center Kai Sotto had another dominant showing of 11 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks but it was the Blue Eaglets’ suffocating defense that enabled them to repeat over the Tiger Cubs.

“We told them that it’s understandable that our offense will be rusty. But there are no off days on defense. The constant effort should be there,” said Silva, pleased with how his wards limited their rivals to just nine points in the second period that set the tone for another double-digit victory.

With new UST coach Aldin Ayo watching from the stands, Cansino tried his best to showcase his vastly-improving offensive skills but the leading MVP candidate proved no match to Ateneo’s stingy defense.

Cansino, the league’s top scorer with 27.6 points per game in the opening round, was held down to just 16 points on 6-of-20 shooting from the field. He added 12 rebounds and four assists but the Tiger Cubs dropped to third spot with a 5-3 mark.

“We knew that when we shut Cansino down, UST will struggle. So that’s what we really emphasised on,” said Silva. “The boys were proud enough to shut him down. It’s a good thing they followed the game plan. I just told the boys ‘Let’s play defense. Our offense will follow.’ In the second quarter, we locked it down.”

Earlier, National University repeated over defending champion Far Eastern University-Diliman, 86-81, to start the second round of play on a high note.