THE Ateneo Blue Eagles did not play with the composure and the experience that they have been working on to improve for the whole season last Saturday.
But this will not happen again, coach Tab Baldwin vowed after defending champion Far Eastern University Tamaraws unnerved the Ateneo Blue Eagles with their zone defense and prevailed, 62-61.
The loss of the second-seeded Blue Eagles allowed the Tams to force a rubber match in their Final Four encounter with the Blue Eagles in the 79th University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament.
“It’s just that we didn’t play with composure and experience that we think we developed during the course of the season and got away from. We paid the price. So, we’ll make sure this does not happen again,” said Baldwin.
In that game, the Blue Eagles were forced to shoot from the outside a lot. Of the 36 three-point attempts, they scored only six.
Aaron Black led the Blue Eagles with 11 points, including two jumpers from the perimeter and a triple at the start of the fourth that handed Ateneo a 49-39 lead in the last 8:09.
Thirdy Ravena had 10 points and shot only two of his seven three-point attempts, while Anton Asistio made nine and converted only one of nine three-point attempts.
“We ended up trying to make 36 three-point shots. That’s way too many and that’s what they were forcing us to do,” added Baldwin.
The Tams went strong underneath with their zone, with Monbert Arong splitting his charity and driving past Chibueze Ikeh in the remaining 7:11, to lead a 10-5 rally.
They forced Ateneo to three turnovers and tied the match 49-all off Raymar Jose’s putback.
The 5’11” Arong forced another deadlock at 55-all with his free throw in the last 1:53, and then broke it with a tear drop shot off Raffy Verano.
Arong, who was 5 of 10 on the free throw line, moved away on three freebies in the last 11.3 seconds, 62-58.