By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

SUCCESSFULLY claimed Game One of their best-of-three University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball finals series last Saturday, the Ateneo Blue Eagles, while happy to have taken the upper hand, are not about to let their guard down, knowing fully that rivals and defending champions De La Salle Green Archers can only be expected to make the necessary adjustments come the next game.

Boosted by what they consider as “total team effort” in the series opener, the Katipunan-based dribblers were able to take control much of the game and withstand the tough fight the Archers put up especially down the stretch to hack out a 76-70 victory that put them one win away from winning it all.

Thirdy Ravena led a balanced attack by Ateneo, finishing with 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Mike Nieto came off the bench to provide much-needed firepower, scoring all of his 11 points in the second half, while twin brother Matt defied a cut left eye brow to add 11 as well.

Anton Asistio finished with 10 points with Vince Tolentino and Aaron Black adding nine and seven points, respectively.

Defensively, the Eagles, too, were on top of things, limiting in particular league most valuable player Ben Mbala to just eight points and the whole La Salle team to just 70.

But while they take pride and delight to what they were able to do in the first game, the Eagles are expecting the Archers to come back more motivated than they already are in Game Two on Wednesday and armed with added template to try to level things, necessitating for Ateneo to come out more prepared as well.

“This is where the chess game comes in. La Salle will make their adjustments so we have to be able to read them and try to make our own adjustments to what they are trying to do,” said Sandy Arespacochaga, Ateneo assistant coach, during the postgame press conference after Game One.

“La Salle is the defending champion and for sure they will come out next game more motivated. We have to have the mentality that we have to step up our game and not be content with this win,” he added.

As for their effort to limit Mbala in the finals paying off massively in the series opener, Mr. Arespacochaga said credit should be given to their players, considering they had a short turnaround between the semifinals and the finals.

“We couldn’t play Ben Mbala straight up one-on-one so we needed to come up with a scheme defensively that had other players helping to slow down Ben. Credit to our players because we came from our last game (semifinal) last Wednesday and we couldn’t do anything live. It was mostly mental and watching videos. The players implemented our game plan. And while there were mistakes, we are nonetheless happy with the way we executed,” Mr. Arespacochaga said.

He went on to say that they hope to stay consistent on the defensive end and rise over the physicality of the affair for them to have a better shot at closing out the series in Game Two at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

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