Eagles near No. 1 spot

By Jonas Terrado - Manila Bulletin - August 25, 2008

Ateneo remained perfect in the second round of elimination yesterday as the Eagles demolished the University of the Philippines Maroons, 79-58, to clinch at least a playoff for one of the two twice-to-beat berths in the Final 4 of the UAAP basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

After surviving the huge challenge of the Maroons in the first two quarters, the Eagles went full throttle in the payoff period to pull away for good for their 11th win that moved them to within a win of securing the No. 1 spot in the semifinals.

With an 11-1 card, the Eagles, who will face the National University Bulldogs on Saturday, need only one more win to secure the top spot and the twice-to-beat advantage that goes with it. The Eagles are 2 ½ games ahead of co-second placers Far Eastern University and De La Salle, both with 8-3 records.

The second placer after the double-round elims also enjoys a twice-to-beat advantage in the semis.

In the second game, University of the East bounced back from a heart-breaking overtime loss to Ateneo by downing Adamson, 58-45, to improve to 7-4.

Paul Zamar and veteran Marcy Arellano topscored for the Warriors with 13 points apiece.

The win enabled the Warriors to increase their lead over University of Santo Tomas for the last spot in the Final Four to 1 ½ games.

Zamar, son of former UE head coach Boyzie Zamar, shot 6-of-10 from the field, while adding four rebounds in 28 minutes of play.

So tough was UE’s defense that no player in Adamson’s side scored in double figures.

Ateneo led only by eight points at halftime, 36-28, but center Rabeh Al-Hussaini and Chris Tiu came through with inspired plays to spark the decisive breakaway and extend the Eagles’ win streak to six, their longest in years.

They won their first five games in the first round before absorbing a stinging 72-66 loss to Far Eastern University.

Al-Hussaini led Ateneo with 24 points and 17 rebounds, his fourth double-double performance of the season, while Tiu finished with 14 markers.

Tiu highlighted his brilliant game by producing a season-high 10 assists – the most by any player in the league since NU’s Jason Malcontento made 11 in the team’s 95-86 loss to UP on August 3, 2006.

Ateneo coach Norman Black also credited his second unit for stepping up big after some of the team’s key players played lackadaisically this time.

"I was very happy with our performance in the second half, especially with the second team," said Black. "I’ve been wanting to them to pick up their game and they were able to separate from UP which I think was important, so hats off to my second team today."

Ateneo struggled in the first 20 minutes as Woody Co scored all his 10 points in the first half while Magi Sison and Migs de Asis added six apiece that saw the Maroons trail by only point in the first quarter and eight at the half.

"First half, I thought our teamwork was bad, they (Maroons) were helping defensively and our ball movement was bad in the first half, we weren’t sharing the ball, everybody wanted to shoot," Black said.

"At halftime, we talked about it, we’ve been an unselfish team the entire year let’s not start to change now, we have been a little success. So in the second half, we tried to get back playing more as a team which basically what came down," he added.

The Blue Eagles’ biggest lead came at 27 points after Luis Gonzaga buried a triple with under a minute left in the game, 79-52.