6 Points: AdMU vs. FEU

Ateneo 69, Far Eastern U 49

-Fine. We have to admit that the Ateneo Blue Eagles did shoot poorly in this contest. But then, what made the difference is not (so much) its effort to pound the ball inside and draw fouls. Rather, it's the way they held the Tams down to the second lowest scoring output in Season 74. Wait a minute, FEU, a team which boasts of potent offense, shot that bad? It must have been a joke. But Coach Norman says it's not.

-Skill is one thing. Discipline is another. Everyone knows that the referees were acting like airport scanners, frantically blowing their whistles every now and then . And yet, Terrence Romeo had the guts to complain at such a moment that they are trying to get a bit closer. And then the T happened. Add to that Bert Flores irritating the refs because he cannot maintain his poise. Another T. When will these guys ever learn? Was it previously mentioned that Anton Montinola had a warning as well?

-Before hitting two straight triples, Kirk Long was basically silent the whole game, only scoring three points through a lay up and a split from the charity stripe. But boy, was his presence stamped all over the defensive end. Together with Emman Monfort and Kiefer Ravena, he gave a helping hand in shutting down the FEU backcourt. RR Garcia needed 23 shots to go double digits, while Romeo only had a fifth of his own. This is the type of defense that the Blue Eagles will miss come Season 75. Any small forward up to the challenge?

-Too bad here is another game that the Blue Eagle's bigs were outrebounded, albeit by one (although FEU had six more offensive boards). Fortunately, each and every one hacked to death by the Tamaraws was able to seize the opportunity to widen the gap. Twenty-three of 28 foul shots were made, nine of them from Slaughter.

-Let's not heckle the bench too much. In the words of the Blue Eagles bloggers of NFP, it doesn't matter if the other team had more bench points than ours. What matters is that we win games. Although the Blue Eagles only had 13 bench points, we have to credit the intangibles, including the way they prevented FEU from scoring their own baskets. Everyone who watched should have seen Aldrech Ramos's face when, after being guarded by Slaughter who in turn was sent back to the bench to rest, he would bang bodies with Justin Chua.

-What else can we say about the sweep? Splendid, and a little bit of stats could back up that statement.

• Average points scored - 72.43 ppg
• Average margin - +14.57ppg
• Average points allowed - 57.86ppg

One Big Fight.

The Scores:

Ateneo 69 – Ravena 19, Slaughter 15, Salva 10, Long 9, Gonzaga 4, Chua 4, Monfort 3, Sumalinog 2, Austria 2, Golla 1, Erram 0, Tiongson 0

FEU 49 – Garcia 15, Escoto 8, Romeo 8, Sentcheu 5, Ramos 5, Exciminiano 4, Tolomia 3, Cruz 1, Mendoza 0, Foronda 0, Knuttel 0, Cawaling 0

Credits to Fabilioh for the photo and inboundpass for the box.