ONE win away from sweeping Season 82 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament and making history in the process, the Ateneo Blue Eagles are laser-focused as ever, tempering any celebrations until they achieve their championship goals.
Returned to action on Saturday following a two-week break after sweeping the elimination round and rendering the semifinals a step-ladder, the Eagles hardly showed any rust, crisp on their attack on both ends of the court in manhandling the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers, 91-77, in Game One of the UAAP Finals.
Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin said postgame that what is doing it for them all season long is treating every game as a “must-win,” requiring the best from them as much as possible even as he emphasized that there is still work to be done and there is no room for letting-up.
“I told our guys before the game (Game One), I think this is a must-win game for us. We need to have the attitude that it is a must-win game,” said the Ateneo coach, who is looking to lead the Eagles to their third straight UAAP title.
And Ateneo surely played with such a mentality in the series opener, proving itself a handful for UST as the game progressed on its way to the dominant win.
Graduating player Thirdy Ravena set the tone for the Eagles from the get-go en route to finishing with 32 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Ange Kouame had solid all-around numbers of 18 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, with SJ Belangel scoring 12 points, all coming from beyond the arc, to go along with five dimes, four boards and two steals.
Rookie of the year Mark Nonoy paced UST with 26 points with Brent Paraiso and Soulemane Chabi Yo adding 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Ateneo took a 32-17 lead at the end of the opening quarter and hit a rough patch early in the second frame.
But once it got its collective footing back they sprinted away and never looked back the rest of the way.
“Well, it’s good to get the win obviously. But we tend to not really see that as a win. We see that as the first half of basketball and we just get a long halftime break. We get to prepare for the second half, which will be in your eyes, Game Two,” said Mr. Baldwin as they gear up for Game Two on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We just want to be 1-0 from here. We don’t really care what’s going on in the past. We have one game left [to win]… Believe me, we just want to play this game on Wednesday well, play it really well. Win the game and whatever comes with that, comes with that. We don’t want our focus on anything else. Especially any talk about records or anything like that. Let’s just play this game on Wednesday and do the best we can,” the Ateneo coach added.
In the event Ateneo completes a perfect season in men’s basketball, it becomes only the fourth team in the UAAP to achieve such a feat, following the University of the East (1969 and 1970), Far Eastern University (1976, 1980 and 1981) and UST (1993). — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
