September 13, 2014
MANILA, Philippines – One big fight-back.
Unleashing the no-quit attitude that served them well in earlier come-from-behind victories, the Ateneo Blue Eagles rallied to a 68-66 overtime win over Far Eastern U Tams to finish No. 1 in the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball elims at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Saturday.
Nearly given up for dead after getting into a deep hole, 36-55, the Blue Eagles painstakingly wiped out the 19-point deficit in the last six minutes of the fourth and played steadier in extension to pull off their 11th win in 14 outings.
This epic come-from-behind squeaker secured the top seeding and twice-to-beat incentive in the Final Four for AdMU, while sending the Tams (10-4) to No. 2 and a playoff with either La Salle or National U. The Green Archers and the Bulldogs were disputing a share of second spot as of posting time.
“It’s partly mental. I don’t wanna give up in the end. Ang laki ng hinabol namin, 19 points, sabi ko sa teammates ko, ‘ngayon pa ba tayo bibigay?’ (It was a huge deficit we had to overcome. I told my teammates not to give up at this point) so I guess even though we’re a very young team, napakita namin at least (we showed) a little maturity in the end,” said Kiefer Ravena, who topscored with 23 points.
Ravena shrugged off a poor shooting game (5-of-28) and stepped up to the plate in the crunch, firing nine in a 19-2 blast forced a 59-all standoff, 20.3 seconds left in regulation. Ravena nearly turned goat when he fouled Mike Tolomia but the FEU ace botched his two freebies with 2.8 seconds left.
The 6-foot Ravena missed a jumper at the buzzer, setting the stage for extra five minutes. It wouldn’t stop the Ateneo machine, though, as Nico Elorde buried a trey, Ravena cashed in his two charities, then Chris Newsome scored a bucket for the Eagles’ first lead, 66-59, going to the last 2:24 of OT.
FEU, through the efforts of Roger Pogoy and Carl Cruz, went to within 64-66, but the Tams later committed costly errors, leading to a pair of splits by Ravena and Fonso Gotladera that sealed it.
The Eagles had their usual poor start, compounding their woes with an eight-point output in the third period that the Tams exploited to post a 45-26 tear.
“I don’t know what happened in the third period. But the 33-14 scoring in the fourth quarter was big for us. I remember telling the team whether we’re going to win or lose this game, this is the level of play we have to expect in the playoffs so we just have to play through this,” said AdMU coach Bo Perasol.
Getting top spot afforded the Eagles’ weary stalwarts like Ravena more time to recover before they will only report for semis duties after at least a week.
“I’m quite relieved because with the way we’re rotating our players right now, we really needed rest for Kiefer and company who’ve been playing long minutes. And actually it was Kiefer who said ‘coach, let’s win this game because we needed the rest in between going to the playoffs and to avoid complications (of playing a playoff for No. 2),” said Perasol.
FEU coach Nash Racela rued the 19 free throws they failed to convert, 11 of which came in the fourth period.
“We missed our FTs and we allowed them to come back,” Racela said. “I think we veered away from our game plan, from what we’re doing in the first three quarters.”
The Scores:
AdMU 68 – Ravena 23, Newsome 13, Gotladera 9, Pessumal 7, Capacio 6, Babilonia 5, Elorde 3, V. Tolentino 2, A. Tolentino 0, Doliguez 0.
FEU 64 – Belo 16, Pogoy 15, Tolomia 10, Cruz 8, Hargrove 8, Inigo 3, Jose 2, Denison 2, Tamsi 0, Lee Yu 0, Denila 0.
Quarterscores: 7-12, 18-25, 26-45, 59-59, 68-64.
