Eagles subdue Lions, face Stags for title
MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo got stuck in weary traffic amid the heavy downpour and arrived minutes before tipoff but still displayed the energy to trample San Beda, 76-63, and advance to the finals of the 2011 Philippine Collegiate Champions League at the Arena yesterday.
Greg Slaughter (20 points, eight rebounds), Kiefer Ravena (18 points, four assists) and Nico Salva (17 points, eight rebounds) delivered as the Eagles finished the round-robin Final Four with a 2-1 card and earned the right to face waiting San Sebastian in Monday’s finale.
The Stags also had a 2-1 record in the semis but secured the top seeding and twice-to-beat advantage owing to their come-from-behind 70-69 victory over the three-peat-seeking PCCL titlist Ateneans earlier this week.
“We are the defending champions, we really want to win the championship to end our long season,” said coach Norman Black, who steered Ateneo to its fifth straight PCCL finals appearance, two months after a “four-peat” romp in the UAAP.
Black was restless minutes before the game as his wards arrived at the venue in trickles.
“We had half the team come in late today just before game because of the rains and the traffic and I was little bit concerned about who will start the game for us,” said Black, who himself managed to enter the Arena some 25 minutes before gametime.
“But I thought we played pretty well today, we played well for 40 minutes, which is really the key,” said Black, whose wards shot a hot 54.2 percent (32-of-59) field goal.
The first few minutes saw Ateneo allow the Red Lions to seize a 7-0 lead. But Ravena, Slaughter and Salva led a counter-assault for a 23-19 lead that the Eagles stretched to 47-31 halfway through the second. They never relinquished the upperhand from there.
However, Black admitted that “it was not very pretty (all the way), particularly in the end when we committed a lot of turnovers but at the same time, our defense held up. That’s something that did not happen in our (previous) game against San Sebastian.”
Such spate of errors enabled the Red Lions to threaten at 51-57 on a triple by Baser Amer, 8:14 left, but fortunately for Black, Ravena and Co. responded with an 17-7 salvo that gave Ateneo a fresh 16-point bubble at 74-58, 1:21 left.
The battle of champions was actually not even from the start as SBC played without injured starters Garvo Lanete (shoulder) and Jake Pascual (bum stomach), and twins Anthony and DJ Semerad, who have left the team after their NCAA conquest.
Mar Villahermosa, filling in for Lanete, fired 21 points spiked by three triples to pace SBC while Rome dela Rosa added 14.
Earlier, NCAA juniors titlist San Beda Red Cubs trounced UAAP counterpart National U Bullpups, 92-76, with Francis Abarcar exploding for 29 big points.
The three-peat champs Cubs also drew double-digit production from Arvin Tolentino (14), Van Adam Abatayo (12) and Daryl Nazareno (10) to get the better of the Bullpups in the one-game exhibition for the benefit of the “Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig.”
Source: http://www.philstar.com/sportsarticle.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=69&articleid=756939&keyword=sp_pba
