Eagles dump falcons, cop semis berth

MANILA, Philippines - Stung by its upset setback to University of the East the last time around, defending champion Ateneo made amends with a 79-72 triumph over Adamson yesterday to formalize its stint in the Final Four for the 14th straight time in the UAAP Season 75 men’s basketball tourney at the MOA Arena.

Bobby Ray Parks Jr. exploded for 32 points as National U bumped La Salle off the No. 4 position with a 72-62 victory in the second game.

Using a recent board decision favoring their protest in a previous game against Far Eastern as sort of motivation, the Bulldogs imposed their will in the second quarter and broke away from a tight game then fended off a series of La Salle rallies in the stretch to post their seventh win against four losses.

The Archers dropped to fifth with a 7-5 card.

“We’re very happy with the decision and we used that good favor to inspire us for this game,” said NU coach Eric Altamirano. 

The Bulldogs protested their controversial 75-77 loss to FEU and the board ordered a replay. In effect, NU got added boost in its race for fourth with La Salle.

“Everyone was excited, we got a second lease on life so we took advantage of that. And today we really played very good defense and controlled the rebound as we planned,” said Altamirano.

Parks posted his sixth career 30-point performance, the most for any player the last 10 years.

“For me, it’s not really about points. It’s really my teammates getting me those shots..the most important thing is we won the game,” said Parks.

Nico Salva scorched with 12 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, spearheading a 9-1 blast in the last three minutes that settled the issue for the Eagles, who were determined to bounce back from their numbing 77-79 loss to the Red Warriors. 

“We executed a lot better in this game and if you look back to the last game, we actually had good looks at the basket against UE but we didn’t make them and they came down and made their shots,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black after his crew picked up its 10th win in 13 outings and claimed the season’s first playoffs seat.

“Nico’s shots were really falling for us, particularly in the fourth quarter. I think we had a big fourth quarter, we scored 24 points in that period and our execution was quite good. But I think the biggest difference was probably our teamwork, the ball movement was much better, we were sharing the ball and everybody is interested in one thing – winning the game,” he added.

Ateneo issued 19 assists, which were six more than what the Eagles had in the UE game.