Eagles subdue untamed Tams

MANILA, Philippines - For a while, Far Eastern University was about to peel off Ateneo’s mask of invincibility. But the Blue Eagles were simply too proud a champion team to surrender in the face of tremendous adversity.

After extinguishing a six-point deficit in a span of 76 seconds to knot the count at the end of regulation, Ateneo outsmarted FEU in overtime to steal a 74-67 win and go 8-0 in UAAP Season 74 seniors caging at the Smart Araneta Coliseum yesterday.

“This is the first game where we were really threatened,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black, whose wards trailed by as many as 16 (20-36 in the second canto) and faced a 57-63 deficit heading into the last 1:16 of the fourth before scoring six unanswered points – all on lay-ups – to force an extension.

“FEU really had control all throughout and I told the players that in this game, we’re going to find what kind of character we have; if we can bounce back and win. Luckily, we kept playing defense and our plays clicked, our execution worked and we’re able to get baskets down the stretch,” added Black.

Ateneo made key defensive stops that led to a fastbreak basket by Emman Monfort and two successive drives by Kiefer Ravena to tie it at 63, before Nico Salva foiled Carl Cruz’s try in the last three seconds of the fourth.

Greg Slaughter (14 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks), Ravena (15 markers, four assists) and Salva (18 points, nine boards) took up the cudgels in a 7-2 exchange to start OT that put the Eagles ahead, 70-65.

FEU (4-4) threatened to within three on Terrence Romeo’s penetration but Slaughter made a clutch tip-in off a Salva miss in the next play to seal Ateneo’s come-from-behind win, a follow-up to their 69-49 rout last week.

“We showed that we won’t give up. We went into the game 7-0 so we could have easily just relaxed. Instead, we really wanted to win and buckled down to work in the fourth quarter,” said Black, admitting his team got off-guard by FEU’s tactic of changing its plays and incorporating sets from last year.

Earlier, National University hacked out a vengeful 91-51 annihilation of first-round tormentor University of the East to improve to 3-5.

“This is redemption for us,” said NU coach Eric Altamirano, whose wards erased memories of their 71-72 setback to UE exactly a week ago with the merciless 40-point rout, the largest winning margin since UE’s 99-59 thrashing of State U on Sept. 8, 2007.

The Bulldogs detonated an 18-2 bomb to seize a 40-20 upperhand in the second, and played without let-up the rest of the way to complete the demolition job.

NU had its biggest lead at 88-44.