Eagles soar to 10th win

By Jonas Terrado - Manila Bulletin - August 22, 2008

Ateneo turned to veteran scorer Chris Tiu and rising star Ryan Buenafe when the game was on the line yesterday as the Blue Eagles escaped with a 61-57 decision over University of the East in overtime in the 71st UAAP basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

Buenafe drove past Paul Lee with 21 seconds left in extra period to give Ateneo a 59-57 lead, then watched UE forward Elmer Espiritu make a bad shot in the ensuing play, sending Nonoy Baclao, Ateneo’s do-it-all forward, to go to the line and make two charities six seconds to go for the final count.

"That was a big shot by Ryan," Eagles mentor Norman Black said after the team boosted its record to 10-1. "Luckily, he came through for us in the end."

Tiu, in his last year at the Ateneo, sank a triple with 13.6 ticks remaining after eluding a double-team to freeze the count at 50-all at the end of regulation.

Black said tying the score was not his main priority.

"We were looking for him and we tried to give him the ball and give it back to him two to three times.

We wanted to go for a two-point shot if we get it off in the first five to six seconds and if we could not do that it would be a 24-second shot clock so we went for the tie and it worked well for us." "UE is one of the toughest teams we have faced and we consider them as one of the teams to beat so we really expected a tough game going here today," added Black.

Rabeh Al-Hussaini led the way for Ateneo with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Tiu banged in 18 markers, collared nine boards and three assists although they were no longer on the court in the endgame owing to cramps.

Rookie Paul Zamar topscored for UE with 13, while James Martinez netted 11 and Hans Thiele drilled in 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Warriors, who slipped to 6-5.

In the first game, host University of the Philippines pounced on an Adamson squad that played without three players for a 73-42 win.

Main men Marc Agustin and Paul Gonzalgo and Allan Santos were benched for disciplinary reasons, sending the Falcons to their seventh straight setback.

Head coach Leo Austria politely declined to say why they were not given playing time.

The Maroons had the game in the bag after two quarters when they erected a 38-14 advantage and the lead even snowballed to 64-26 in the third canto as the Falcons could only come up with five points in that stretch.

Martin Reyes finished with 13 points, 10 of which in the first half, as the Fighting Maroons improved to 3-8.

"We didn’t expect to win this big," UP head coach Aboy Castro said.