Eagles face Maroons for 5th win in row

MANILA, Philippines -  Pacesetting Ateneo trains its sights on a fifth straight triumph while Far Eastern University tries to firm up its hold of second spot when they take on separate rivals today in the UAAP Season 74 men’s basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

The four-peat-seeking Blue Eagles seek this objective at 1 p.m. against lightweight University of the Philippines (1-2) while last year’s losing finalist Tamaraws (3-1) look to go solo at No. 2 against University of Santo Tomas (2-1) at 3 p.m.

The Blue Eagles have been spotless in four outings to start the season and in large part that has something to do with 6-foot-11 transferee Greg Slaughter.

“I’m happy for Greg. He is doing his job and he immediately molded to our team concept,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black of the behemoth who emerged as the Eagles’ top scorer with 15.8 points per game.

Slaughter also totes averages of 7.8 rebounds and two shot blocks, posing an intimidating shadow in the interior complemented well by a explosive presence rookie guard Kiefer Ravena (12.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.5 apg and 1.5 spg) and the heads-up games of veterans Nico Salva, Kirk Long and Eman Monfort (combined 30 ppg).

They will be up against a UP crew headed by Jett Manuel, Mike Silungan, Mike Gamboa, Alinko Mbah and Jelo Montecastro who are out to snap a two-game losing skein.

The Tams may be up in the standings but their first four games showed a big shortcoming that they have to address – rebounding.

FEU’s frontliners Aldrech Ramos, Carl Cruz and Mark Bringas have so far been struggling to make their presence felt in the middle, averaging only 43.3 rebounds per game.

“We’re sorely missing the absence of (injured forward) Pippo Noundou. Without him, we lost many rebounds. So we’re counting on our big men now,” said FEU coach Bert Flores following their 62-59 win over National University last Sunday.

FEU will again rely on its vaunted guards RR Garcia, Terrence Romeo and Cris Tolomia against a Tigers team trying to rebound from their 71-81 loss to Adamson a week ago.