Nico Salva of Ateneo aims to score over the outstretched arms of FEU’s Russel Escoto. (Vyn Radovan/FCF)
Games Sunday (August 14, 2011)
Araneta Coliseum
1:00pm – Santo Tomas vs. State U
3:00pm – Adamson vs. De La Salle
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| (8 – 0) | (4 – 4) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 74 – 67 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ateneo de Manila University staged a late-game comeback, defeating Far Eastern University in overtime, 74-67, in the first Saturday of the 2nd round of eliminations in the 74th University Athletics Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.
Nico Salva led the scoring for the Eagles with 18 points. Kiefer Ravena contributed 15, all of which was scored in the second half, while Greg Slaughter went double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The three-time defending champions remain on top of the leaderboard with an immaculate 8-0 record.
Ateneo Head Coach Normal Black said “This is a game where FEU controlled the game all throughout… FEU did a good job today. They changed most of their plays. We just had to play offensively.”
The Tamaraws indeed dominated the first three quarters. They managed to keep the defending champions at bay in the first half, outscoring them 21-13 and 17-12 in the first and second quarter respectively. Ateneo definitely struggled with the shooting, making only 27.3% of their 2-point field goals.
Badly outscoring the opposition with a 17-9 third quarter, The Eagles rallied to catch up to the Tamaraws. Five quick fouls, all in the act of shooting gave them a huge opportunity of stealing the game away at the tail end of regulation.
Luckily for the green and gold, Slaughter managed to split in three trips to maintain the slimmest of leads at one.
However a string of baskets by Carl Cruz and Terrence Romeo, which was compounded by a trey from the right wing by RR Garcia at the 1:16 mark to put doubts into the minds of the Ateneans in the stands.
With less than a minute to go, big baskets by Emman Monfort and Ravena succeeding great defensive stops brought them within two points.
Finally, a driving layup by Ravena with 8.8 left on the clock finally tied the game at 63, sending it into overtime.
“We were able to get into overtime in a tough situation.” Slaughter stated, “We got the momentum going into overtime.”
Black agreed saying “In the end, Greg, Kiefer and Nico Salva made some really big plays down the stretch.”
RR Garcia scored 17 points, while Terrence Romeo and Carl Cruz tallied 11 and 10 points respectively for the Tamaraws. With the loss, FEU slides down to fourth place at 4-4.
BOX SCORES
ATENEO (74): Salva 18, Ravena 15, Slaughter 14, Chua 9, Monfort 7, Gonzaga 6, Long 3, Austria 2, Golla 0, Tiongson 0
FAR EASTERN (67): Garcia 17, Romeo 11, Cruz 10, Ramos 8, Escoto 7, Bringas 6, Tolomia 5, Exciminiano 3, Pogoy 0, Mendoza 0, Knuttel 0
Quarters: 13-21, 25-38, 42-47, 63-63, 74-67 (OT)
