Falcons trip Eagles, Tams whip Archers
Games Wednesday (Smart Araneta Coliseum) 2 p.m. – UST vs FEU 4 p.m. – UP vs Ateneo
Adamson just showed everyone that in UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tourney, no one, not even heavily favored holder Ateneo, is invincible.
Dishing out one hell of a performance against what coach Franz Pumaren dubbed as the “deepest Ateneo roster,” the determined Falcons completed a massive 74-70 upset to send shockwaves around the MOA Arena last night.
“Kudos to my coaching staff, they did a splendid job scouting Ateneo and my players, they followed the game instructions,” said Pumaren after AdU got one over AdMU for the first time since a 62-61 victory in 2016. “I don’t know if Ateneo was too complacent today because during the summer, we lost to them badly and probably they were thinking we’re easy prey.”
Ateneo was blowing past Adamson in the early goings, taking a 10-point lead but then AdU newbie Jerom Lastimosa sparked a game-changing 11-0 windup capped by Jerrick Ahanmisi’s buzzer-beating triple from centercourt to put the Falcons ahead at the turn, 40-39.
That emboldened the Falcons in the belief that this game’s winnable. By the third, the San Marcelino-based crew went ahead by seven and made Ateneo play catch-up all the way to the finish. Papi Sarr, who’s been struggling all game, made a clutch putback off Sean Manganti’s flubbed three to give AdU a 72-70 cushion then grabbed the defensive board off a miss by Thirdy Ravena to retain possession, leading to Manganti’s insurance freebies.
“I was telling the players just hang on, let’s keep the game close and let me coach. Because in our previous matches, we fell behind big,” said Pumaren.
It helped that Ateneo played in a lot of tournaments – won some of them and placed a fighting fourth in the William Jones Cup.
“It worked to our advantage. We were really able to scout them, dissect their team, I had sleepless nights reviewing their games in the Jones Cup. I think this is the best Ateneo team I’ve seen in years in terms of depth, in every position they’re three, four players deep,” said Pumaren.
Earlier, Far Eastern U achieved a measure of revenge against regular tormentor La Salle, 68-61.
Arvin Tolentino, Hubert Cani, Kenneth Tuffin, Axel Inigo and Jasper Parker anchored a 13-6 windup that allowed the Tams to break out of La Salle’s four-game stranglehold and pick up their first victory head-to-head since scoring a 71-68 victory in November 2015. The scores: First Game FEU 68 – Tolentino 13, Tuffin 11, Inigo 10, Comboy 9, Stockton 9, Cani 7, Parker 5, Ebona 2, Escoto 2, Orizu 0.
DLSU 61 – Santillan 19, Melecio 11, Caracut 9, Baltazar 8, Montalbo 5, Serrano 3, Bates 2, Samuel 2, Dyke 1, Manuel 1, Capacio 0, Corteza 0, Go 0. Quarterscores: 11-14, 25-26, 48-48, 68-61 Second Game AdU 74 – Ahanmisi 23, V. Magbuhos 10, Sarr 8, Catapusan 7, Espeleta 7, Lastimosa 6, Manganti 4, Mojica 3, Pingoy 3, Camacho 2, Colonia 1, Bernardo 0.
AdMU 70 – Ma. Niteo 21, Verano 10, Asistio 7, Ravena 7, Go 6, Mendoza 5, Navarro 5, Black 4, Mi. Nieto 4, Kouame 1, Belangel 0, Tio 0, Wong 0.
Quarterscores: 18-20, 40-39, 55-51, 74-70