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Ateneo’s Rafael Verano vs UST. UAAP PHOTO
At the same time as Ateneo cruised previous one more hapless sufferer with a wire-to-wire present of excellence, Adamson uncovered the vulnerability of one of many Blue Eagles’ supposed threats.
The defending champion assembled a 40-minute showcase of consistency in demolishing College of Santo Tomas (UST), 101-51, within the UAAP Season 84 males’s basketball event on Friday at Mall of Asia Area.
“Other than being a little bit bit unfastened with the ball [and committing] 19 turnovers, I feel that it was a reasonably complete efficiency on each ends of the ground and it feels good to everyone once I suppose you stroll off the ground feeling such as you performed 40 minutes of basketball as a workforce,” Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin mentioned.
Ateneo had six gamers in double figures, shot 57.6 % from the sphere, assisted on 27 of its 38 made discipline targets and scored extra factors within the first quarter than UST coughed up within the first half. The Blue Eagles led by as many as 53 factors, logged their thirty sixth straight victory and, with their tenth straight this season, are inside 4 wins of claiming an outright championship slot.
As if that wasn’t sufficient to ship a message to the remainder of the sphere that everybody is just about taking part in for second place, College of the Philippines (UP), maybe the one workforce that may match Ateneo’s expertise depth, came upon how troublesome it’s to remain in keeping with the Eagles.
Clutch baskets
Jerom Lastimosa hit clutch baskets within the final 23 seconds because the Falcons snapped the Maroons’ eight-game run with a 66-58 upset.
“We ready laborious for UP,” mentioned Lastimosa, nephew of PBA legend Jojo Lastimosa. “We keep in mind how after they beat us within the first spherical (73-71), it was us crying. Now it’s our time to have a good time.”
Adamson upped its document to 4-6, forcing a logjam for the No. 4 spot after Far Japanese U (FEU) surprised Nationwide College, 59-57, on a triple by hawk-eyed ahead Xyrus Torres with two seconds remaining within the sport.
UP’s loss left it at 8-2, nonetheless in second place however now trailing Ateneo by two video games.
And having been unbothered by the opposition to this point this season, the Eagles at the moment are seeking to slay inside foes.
“I feel we simply must mentally put together ourselves for every sport,” mentioned ahead Raffy Verano, who led Ateneo with 18 factors and 7 rebounds. “Coach Tab, the coaches have been harping on that, we’ve got a variety of psychological lapses, particularly within the second half. We’re speaking throughout the gamers, mentally we have to come to the sport with a killer intuition. I feel at this time, we truly confirmed a little bit little bit of that. I feel transferring ahead, it’ll simply maintain going up and up.”
And as a lot because the Eagles carved out the largest margin of victory because the UAAP computerized its stats-archiving, Baldwin wasn’t fairly positive if this was Ateneo’s assertion sport of the season.
“I feel that’s a grand thought to have and I would love for that to be true,” mentioned Baldwin after their blowout win. “However I feel that we’ll solely know whether or not that’s true or not if we observe it up with different video games the place the gamers actually maintain their shoulders to the grindstone and maintain working laborious proper all through the sport and stick collectively and work with each other.”
Little victories
And as catching up with Ateneo has develop into an not possible activity, a minimum of for the classification spherical, colleges should look to have a good time no matter victories they’ll handle.
“Our mentality is simply go day-to-day, game-to-game and see the place it leaves us,” mentioned Adamson coach Nash Racela, admitting that his workforce wasn’t trying on the long-term in the mean time. “I’m simply so glad that in a single month of taking part in, the gamers responded and proved they’ll.”
His brother, FEU coach Olsen Racela, additionally expressed optimism that his workforce was transferring in the correct course.
“The shot of Xyrus received the sport for us. However [our] character of not giving up and trusting each other is essential for us,” Olsen mentioned, including that Torres’ shot was a results of the Tamaraws studying “to belief one another.”
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