ATENEO isn’t the defending champion for nothing.
Showing they wanted it more, the Blue Eagles dismantled the Adamson University Soaring Falcons 70-48 yesterday in their do-or-die playoff for the last Final Four berth in the 86th UAAP basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
Fil-Am guard Jared Brown scattered a game-high 20 points spiked by four three-pointers, hauled down four rebounds, and issued four assists for Ateneo, while Sean Quitevis backed him up with 11 markers, three boards, and two dimes.
Mason Amos also had 10 and two as the Katipunan-based crew rebounded from a stinging 69-72 loss to rival La Salle five days back.
More importantly, the Eagles forged a semifinals showdown–a rematch of the Big Dance’s last two editions –against top seed and twice-to-beat University of the Philippines.
The second seed Green Archers, also armed with a win-once incentive, will take on third-ranked National University in the other Final Four pairing this Saturday, Nov. 25, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Adamson came off a thrilling 63-61 win over University of the East on a Matthew Montebon game-winning triple last Sunday.
Despite the runaway triumph, Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin admitted the Falcons gave his wards fits.
“I guess, probably on the scoreboard, you know, maybe it didn’t look like a tough game in the end. But it was a very tough game, it always is with Adamson, and I think that’s reflected probably in the low score,” Baldwin said. “You know that it’s just hard to do things, the low shooting percentages, you know, first half, we kind of got some freedom in the first half.
“Especially Jared shot the ball well and, you know, getting 40 points against an Adamson team in a half is really good effort. But we knew that in the third quarter particularly we were going to have to dig in and to be somebody different than we’ve been,” he added.
The Eagles zoomed to a 40-25 edge at the half and led by as much as 25 before taking a 56-39 lead going into the payoff period.
Ateneo hardly met resistance from thereon.
Falcons graduating skipper Jerom Lastimosa, who was sidelined for all but one game in the season due to an ACL injury, was fielded in the match twice– the first with 24.8 seconds left in the first half.
In a heartwarming moment to close out the game, Ateneo rookie Kyle Gamber passed the ball to Lastimosa, who then knocked down a buzzer-beating triple that not only closed the tiff out but also his collegiate career.
Matty Erolon was the lone bright spot for Adamson with nine points, while Didat Hanapi contributed eight and four.
