MANILA, Philippines – Playing in a championship-like atmosphere, the Ateneo Blue Eagles finally found their five-peat championship form continuing their mastery of the UST Growling Tigers, 71-67, on Saturday at the packed Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Before a large crowd of 14, 135, the last season’s finals protagonists fought tooth-and-nail in a thrilling game replete with highlight reels. But in the end, it was the solid defense of the Eagles which proved to be the huge difference-maker.
And for the first time in the post-Norman Black era, the Eagles won back-to-back which augurs well to their campaign heading into the second half of the season.
The Tigers came tantalizingly close to steal the game away but Ed Daquioag and Kevin Ferrer misfired down the stretch as the Eagles closed out the first round with a 3-4 win-loss mark.
Daquioag was sensational at the start of the fourth period when he engineered a 7-2 run to put UST within three, 49-46, after getting buried by a dozen in the third period.
After burying a triple to end the third, the 6-foot-1 Daquioag took off from where he left feeding Karim Abdul down low then, lo and behold, slammed the ball off a baseline drive that left the large crowd in awe.
In the next sequence, Daquiaog fired another triple that as the Tigers clawed their way back from an early 13-point hole.
Ryan Buenafe answered with his own triple to restore order in the Eagles side.
Daquioag once again pushed UST within a striking distance, 56-53, with fastbreak layup but Ateneo again had an answer.
Kiefer Ravena extended Ateneo’s lead to five then blocked Daquioag’s three-point attempt to douse cold water on UST’s fiery rally.
Clark Bautista’s triple cut the lead to two, 59-57, but Chris Newsome and Ravena’s split free throws sandwiched Ferrer’s two missed treys to ice the game.
An injury-free Ravena paced the Eagles with 13 points on eight boards and a couple of assists aside from the huge block on Daquioag.
Newsome was one rebound short of a double-double (10 points and nine rebounds) while Buenafe and Juami Tiongson chipped in an identical nine-point and four-assist effort.
The lost left the Tigers tied with the UE Red Warriors for the second spot with 4-3 win-loss records.