Games Thursday (August 25, 2011)
Araneta Coliseum
1:00pm – Ateneo vs. East
3:00pm – De La Salle vs. Santo Tomas
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GAME SUMMARY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FINAL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (4 – 6) | (2 – 8) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 65 – 43 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| STATS | BOX | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National University, behind huge games from the 1-2 punch of rookie swingman Bobby Ray Parks and Cameroonian big man Emmanuel Mbe, blew out a struggling University of the Philippines unit, 65-43, to inch closer into contention in the 74th University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
“We had a good offensive night. Jean played well on both ends. It really helped us a lot,” noticed Bulldogs head coach Eric Altamirano. “Honestly we really don’t have a deep bench in terms of offensive options. If you notice everytime Ray and Sean play well we win.”
Parks, the half-Filipino son of former Philippine Basketball Association import Bobby Sr., tallied a modest 22 points and 7 rebounds with 4 assists. Mbe accounted for a double-double total of 17 points and a team-high 17 caroms. Joseph Terso closed out the top three scorers list with 7.
“Our game plan was to shut down Manuel and Silungan,” noted the rookie skipper and former UP Maroon.
The game was decidedly meant for the Bulldogs from the getgo as they immediately took the lead, finishing the first quarter with an 11-point lead over UP at 17-6. Parks already proved for be a force to be reckoned with, scoring 7 points, one more than the 6 combined points of Alinko Mbah, Montecastro, and Maniego.
Things remained bleak for the Maroons at the second quarter as they scored only 7 points. NU put up twice as much and at halftime NU was still ahead 27-13.
Frustration was mounting for UP in the third quarter, with Coach Ricky Dandan being issed a technical foul early on. The Diliman-based squad was outscored 21-13 and at the buzzer NU was still ahead 48-26.
Joseph Terso scored all of his 7 points in the fourth quarter. Scoring improved for UP as they put up 17 points, matching the output of the Bulldogs. However, the late-game rally was all in vain.
Shooting was below par for both teams, as UP made only 17.6% of their three-point attempts and shot 30.4% of their 2-point field goals. NU didn’t fare much better from the three-point line with only 20%, but significantly fared better with their 2-point field goals at 44.2%.
“We have to be consistent with our game. We can’t be a switch. We have to come into the game expecting to compete. We have to remove the mindset na malakas ang kalaban. They have to believe that they can do it even if they’re young.”
Despite the win, the calm and collected former RP Youth coach is adamant that there is room for improvement.
“Marami pa kaming dapat trabauhin. If you look at the stats sa lahat halos dead last kami,” added Altamirano. “We’ll just take it one game at a time. Make sure we focus on each game. We’ll see from there kung may chance.”
For the Maroons who had no scorer that breached the double digit mark, Paolo Romero led the way with 7 points. Gelo Montecastro, Miggy Maniego and Mark Juruena put up 6 points apiece in their team’s fifth straight setback.
The boys from the other side of Sampaloc now boasts of a 4-6 card and gives them an outside shot at gaining one of four slots to the post-season, while sending their Diliman counterparts toppling down to the bottom of the heap with a 2-8 win-loss card in the process.
BOX SCORES
NATIONAL (65): Parks 22, Mbe 17, Terso 7, Javillonar 6, Khobuntin 4, Villamor 2, Celda 2, Alolino 2, Singh 2, Ignacio 1, Neypes 0, Labing-isa 0, Celiz 0
STATE U (43): Romero 7, Montecastro 6, Maniego 6, Juruena 6, Gamboa 5, Mbah 4, Gingerich 3, Silungan 2, Manuel 2, Gomez 2, Wong 0, Wierzba 0, Fortu 0
Quarters: 17-6, 27-13, 48-26, 65-43
