Eagles back at helm, trip Warriors

Ateneo used its height and heft to dominate University of the East as it coasted to a 75-60 victory yesterday to join defending champion La Salle and host Far Eastern U at the helm in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Ateneo Gym.

Enrico Villanueva and Richard Alvarez underscored the Eagles’ awesome frontline as they combined for 35 points and 28 rebounds to power the Eagles to their fifth straight victory against one loss.

"We played tougher this time and though there were some mistakes, we generally played better than in our past games," said Ateneo coach Joe Lipa, who will face Aric del Rosario and the UST Tigers tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum.

Paul Artadi tried to carry the fight for UE, which played with a hurting James Yap, but he could only churn out 15 points, which were not enough to counter the Eagles’ siege.

It was the Warriors’ third loss against the same number of victories as they dropped to a share of fourth place with the National U Bulldogs.

Earlier, University of Santo Tomas banked on Emerson Oreta’s clutch three-pointers down the stretch to repulse University of the Philippines, 71-65.

Oreta, playing out his last year with the school, came through with back-to-back triples in the last 90 seconds as the Tigers survived the Maroons to notch their second victory in six games.

But for UST coach Aric del Rosario, they pulled off the victory through sheer luck.

Michael Bravo scored 26 points for the Maroons, including 13 in the final quarter, but drew little support from his teammates as UP absorbed its fifth consecutive setback following an opening day victory over Adamson University.

Oreta actually started out hot as he drilled in two triples to give the Tigers the early lead and the momentum although they wavered in the second half, enabling the Maroons to close the gap at 48-56.

With Bravo on the firing end, UP even wrested the lead at 61-60 heading into the final minute but Oreta took over for the Tigers with his long-range shooting, sinking two crucial treys that gave them back the lead and the victory.