Lady Eagles Downed by The Lady Maroons, 53-64

Basketball is a game of adjustments. Coaches usually make the proper adjustments in preparation for their next game or in-game as the match develops. Today, the Lady Maroons came prepared. From the get go, the UP ladies set out to win this one. It wasn't that the Lady Eagles weren't out to win it, the Lady Maroons was just better prepared today.

The 1st quarter was close. As every basket was answered by the other team. The quarter ended with UP on top, ADMU 11 - UP 13. It seemed that this game was going down the wire as both teams matched well with each other. The 2nd quarter proved to be the turning point as UP finally got their offense in rhythm as they were able to increase their lead to 7 midway through the quarter, ADMU 18 - UP 25. The ladies in blue tried their best to close the gap to end the half, however UP had an answer to every basket of Ateneo. The half ended with UP still in the lead, ADMU 23 - UP 32.

Sam Ong's scored 17 points, most of them from three point territory. Her timely shots kept the Lady Eagles at striking distance.
(Lady Eagles vs UP - Filoil Arena, August 15, 2010)

The 3rd quarter saw the Lady Maroons keep the Lady Eagles at bay. At certain points of the quarter Ateneo would go on a mini run and be able to close the gap to within 3 points, only to have it snuffed by UP with their own runs. The quarter ended slightly better for Ateneo, ADMU 39 - UP 44.

Val Chua with a short jumper, as the Lady Eagles try to cut the UP deficit in the 3rd quarter.
(Lady Eagles vs UP - Filoil Arena, August 15, 2010)

In the final quarter, the Lady Eagles started out all business. The only problem was, the Lady Maroons were ready for them. Ateneo would again go on runs and close the gaps, but 3 points seemed to be the hump that the Lady Eagles couldn't seem to get past, as Ateneo tried in vain to get back the lead. The game finally ended, ADMU 53 - UP 64.

Mariana Lopa makes a 3-pointer to spark the Lady Eagles' last ditch effort near the end of the game.
(Lady Eagles vs UP - Filoil Arena, August 15, 2010)

*Games between Ateneo and UP have always been emotional, be it in the Men's, Junior's or Women's divisions. What made today's game extra emotional was how the referee's called it. I don't usually complain about how the refs call a game. I usually leave that to the experts. However, today was just too dodgy not to complain. Mind you, I am not complaining because I think Ateneo lost the game because of bad officiating. UP deserve the win. They were better prepared, they scored when it counted and played defense that frustrated the Lady Eagles.

The officiating benefited neither team. Both teams were victimized by such bad officiating. I believe there were more double lane violations called that fouls. It was like each 2nd free throw missed was a sure lane violation. At one point, Coach Joe Silva told the girls not to even enter the shaded area. And the funny thing was, a violation was called against the Lady Eagles! It's bad enough that violations are called because two players of opposing teams enter too early. But to call a violation because no one entered the lane, that's just plain bad officiating. In another instance the same violation was called. The possession arrow pointed towards Ateneo, the barker called Ateneo ball, the UP staff knew that possession was for Ateneo, the whole freaking Filoil Arena knew whose ball it was, except for the refs. They nonchalantly gave the ball to a UP player in the sidelines and started the game. What the?!??! The infuriating thing was, they had to confer with table officials to change their call. L-A-B-O. Come on UAAP, get the referee's acts together!

** Angel Morales of the Lady Eagles suffered a knee injury as she slipped some 3 minutes into the game. The injury happened just when she shot a 3 pointer. Losing her was a big loss to the team as she plays hustle defense and can shoot the lights out. I pray for her speed recovery. One Big Fight Angel!

Eaglets defeat UE, 101-60

In basketball, there are very exciting games and boring ones. The exciting ones are those that go down the wire. You wouldn't know who would win till that last few seconds of the game. The boring ones are those that right from the get go, you'd know who will win. It's all a matter of guessing by how much by the final buzzer. Some love close games. They look forward to how coaches and players would react in pressure packed situations. Others would rather have a boring game where his team is sure to win. They feed of the thrills of the consecutive steals and open looks that the players would get. Blowout games are also much much kinder to the heart.

Kiefer Ravena scored 21 points to lead the Eaglets to their 9th win.
(Blue Eaglets vs UE - Filoil Arena, August 14, 2010)

Today's game between the Ateneo Blue Eaglets and the UE Junior Warriors (didn't they used to be called Pages?) was of the boring type. At the first quarter, UE seemed to be keeping at pace with Ateneo as they kept the deficit within single digits, 21-12 in favor of the Blue Eaglets.

Von Pessumal played a great all around game. He is shown here driving hard to the basket against UE's center.
(Blue Eaglets vs UE - Filoil Arena, August 14, 2010)

At the second quarter though, Ateneo turned up their defense and proved once more that their defense is one of the best in the league. UE hardly any chance to bring the ball down as Ateneo's full court press continually forced the Junior Warriors to give the ball up multiple times. This gave Ateneo multiple scoring opportunities off UE turn overs. By the end of the first half, Ateneo's lead had ballooned to 25, Ateneo 51, UE 26.

Lambert Tenorio scoring off a turn over by UE.
(Blue Eaglets vs UE - Filoil Arena, August 14, 2010)

The third and fourth quarter was no different as Ateneo continued to put pressure on the UE guards. Midway through the third, Ateneo had a 40 point lead, 70-30. With the Blue Eaglets comfortably ahead, Coach Jamike pulled out his veterans and played an all-rookie team. At first, it seemed that UE was going to make a run to cut the lead with consecutive three point shots. However, Ateneo's rookies were able to keep their composure and bring the lead back to 40 multiple times. The game ended with Ateneo scoring over 100 points anew, 101-60. Ateneo is now 9-0. Go Ateneo!

One Big Fight!

Quick Post - Blue Eaglets def. UST Tiger Cubs

Round two of the juniors competition started today. Ateneo had a game against UST at 5pm today. After every game Von Pessumal usually has a simple message on his facebook status. This evening it simply read "8". For those who know Von, this means they are now 8-0. I immediately searched for updates and found out that it was a close game between the two teams. I couldn't comment on how it was played because I wasn't there to shoot today (I do have a day job), but based on the conversations on gameface.ph, it went down the wire (again!), ADMU 60 - UST 57.

Now that these teams have played two close games, as a Blue Eaglet fan, I wouldn't want to meet UST in the Final Four. Last year we were in a similar situation but with roles reversed. In Season 72, UST had beaten Ateneo twice in the elimination rounds. It seemed like a daunting task for the Eaglets as they finished at 3rd place, having to beat a team twice that had beat them twice before. Ateneo made the proper adjustments and the rest was history. I'm sure if the two teams meet in the Final Four, the Tiger Cubs would like nothing more than get back at the Eaglets.

But I may be getting ahead of myself. It is still too early to predict the final standings as 6 more games need to be played. A lot can happen in 6 games. However, if these two teams do meet again in the Final Four or the Finals, expect it to go down the wire every game. And expect the Blue Eaglets to be ready, as always.

Go Eaglets! One Big Fight!

Lady Eagles at 3-4

From goAteneo.com's Facebook page:

"The Ladies from Loyola Heights end their first round of basketball with a win against their neighbors from Diliman 64-61."

That would mean that the Lady Eagles has a 3-4 win-loss record at the end of the first round, that puts the team at 5th place. La Salle and UST are battling for 3rd place both with identical 4-2 records. They too had a game today, but I couldn't find any updates on that game (will update later on). The interesting battle is for 1st place on Thursday, August 12 with FEU and Adamson both having zero loses in 6 games. The bottom 3 comprise UE (0-6), NU (1-5) and UP (1-6). UE has a chance for their first win when they go against the NU Lady Bulldogs also on Thursday.

From the looks of it, the Lady Eagles are within striking distance for that 4th slot which will be held by either La Salle or UST. Both 1st round games between these two teams were pretty close ones (vs UST 66-72, vs DLSU 60-64) with Ateneo even leading at some points of the game. If the Lady Eagles can repeat over the bottom teams and find a way to finish well against these two, the team may be back in the final four. This will definitely be an exciting 2nd round that I am looking forward to.

Good luck Ladies! One Big Fight!

Losing with Grace - The Lady Eagles vs The Lady Archers

Way back when I was in college, the only thing that mattered in Ateneo Basketball was to beat La Salle. The Eagles back then wasn't a championship caliber team. Not as bad as the UP Maroons as of late (I still believe they will pull one off this season), but more like the NU teams of past years. Those were the dark ages. Any win by that team was like winning a big game, and a win against the Archers was like winning the championship.

Today was a similar situation. With a team that isn't a powerhouse like FEU or Adamson, I was expecting them to have a difficult time getting past an athletic and tall Lady Archer team. A win though would boost the Lady Eagles' confidence to a higher level. At the get go, the Lady Eagles went out running, scoring 2 quick baskets gaining a 4-2 lead. But a 15-3 run by the Lady Archers seemed to have broken the Lady Eagles early in the game. With sniping by the La Salle guards and the inside presence of center Kady Wilson, the Lady Archers had a ten point lead over the Lady Eagles, 17-7. The second quarter was no different. La Salle's stifling defense limited the Lady Eagles' output to only 12 points as compared to their own 17, increasing their lead to 15 by the end of the first half, DLSU 34 - ADMU 19.

Allysa Dogong with a reverse layup
(Lady Eagles vs DLSU - Filoil Arena, August 7, 2010)

All seemed lost for the Lady Eagles. Their own outside shooting was hardly clicking, their inside game derailed by Wilson, they were hard pressed for answers. And their answer came in the form of their rookie, Allysa Dogong and main point guard Jen Dimaano. Finally, the Lady Eagles offense started clicking. The two guards drove fearlessly to the basket and their outside shooting finally went into high gear. Allysa had her own highlight as she drove to the basket for a spectacular reverse over La Salle center Wilson. A final drive by center Val Chua closed the gap to just 8 at end of the quarter, 43-35 in favor of the Lady Archers. By the fourth, the Lady Archers seemed to be back in control of the game as they were able to answer each basket the Lady Eagles scored. However by the 3 minute mark, Ateneo made their move. A 7-o blast, highlighted by a Jen Dimaano drive over Wilson's outstretched arm, tied the game at 49. Ateneo had numerous scoring opportunities to put the game away in regulation, however these did not pan out as the game went into overtime.

Jen Dimaano vs Kady Wilson
(Lady Eagles vs DLSU - Filoil Arena, August 7, 2010)

At the start of the overtime period, the Lady Eagles seemed to have the game in control as they went on a 9-2 run. Ateneo on top by 7, 58-51 with roughly 3 mins to go. However, it was La Salle's turn to turn on the heat as they unleashed a blistering 10-2 run of their own to wrest the lead back, 60-61. Through a series of offensive miscues and unforced errors, the Lady Eagles failed to score in their next possession. With 30 seconds left, a defensive stop by Ateneo would bring the ball back to their court with time to spare for another play. As time winded down in the Lady Archer shot clock, rookie Piatos found herself open at the top of the key for a booming three pointer, DLSU 64-ADMU 60. Ateneo was unable to score in their last possession.

It was a sad loss. Sometimes I think to myself, which is worse, a blowout defeat or a close overtime loss? This particular defeat is very hard to swallow because of two things. Ateneo could have won it and that it was against La Salle. However, after the game, I felt different about this loss. I was proud to have been there to watch it. If you look at where the team is at right now: a new coaching staff, new players and a new system, today's game only shows how good this team really is and how great they can be. Most teams who face a 15 point deficit at half time would just give up. Most fans would already be think of a loss by that time. But that is not how Lady Eagle Basketball is played and that is not how fans of these ladies are. They play and cheer till the last second, win or lose.

Season 73 Lady Eagles
(Lady Eagles vs DLSU - Filoil Arena, August 7, 2010)

So to answer my question, I'd rather watch a loss in overtime, knowing full well that my team fought to the bitter end.

One Big Fight!

*Sarah Mercado also played a great game, despite nursing a shoulder injury. She wasn't able to finish the game.

The Eaglets are 7-0

I've been watching the Blue Eaglets since I started shooting in 2005. Well, to be honest, I watched their final game in 2005 when they lost the UPIS in the Final Four. Since then I've followed their campaigns and have seen them win and lose year in and year out. The great thing about it is that in each year after that, they made it to the finals. Their record in the last 4 championships have been 3-1, losing in 2007 to DLSZ who was coming back after serving their suspension (well, okay, their elder brother's suspension).

In the entire UAAP juniors division, the team has the most if not the only championship experience with Kiefer playing in 3 series and Chucky, Lambert, Von and Pao Romero playing in 2. All have experienced winning a championship. So they know how it is to win one. It's also good that the best player in the team knows how to lose one, as Kiefer was in the Season 70 team that lost to DLSZ.

They are now at 7-0. If you base everything on just looking at the past 7 games, their strongest competitor would be UST. They are the only team that the Eaglets didn't beat by double digits (UST lost by 4). They have Kevin Ferrer who is a do-it-all player. He can dribble, work for points inside and easily bring it beyond the arc. And he has a support shooter in Sarcia, a surprise player who drained too many threes that kept the Eaglets from blowing the game wide open. These are the two to watch in their next encounter, well aside from Rolly Manlapaz calling out UST's player Goo(ooooooooooo)h.

The other team I am wary of are the Bullpups. They are the most improved team this year. From a 1-6 first round to 5-2 this year. If that's not improvement, I don't know what is. Their only blowout loss was against the Eaglets. The other loss was to FEU-Fern. They are tied at second with UST. Their renewed offense may take them to the end this year.

I don't usually make predictions. But here's my wish list Final Four in the Juniors Division of the UAAP. This is based solely on how I watched them play in the short time I wait before Eaglet games:

1 - Ateneo
2 - NU
3 - UST
4 - Adamson

2 and 3 can actually go either way between UST and NU. I chose NU because I wanted them to get something out of their new and improved "bite". 4 can go to any of three teams, Adamson, FEU-Fern and DLSZ. Why Adamson? Aside from wanting to see Hector in a Final Four match, I liked how they played the Eaglets in the first round. It would lead to a fun Final Four encounter.

The Season 73 Eaglets (Blue Eaglets vs UE - - Filoil Arena, July 17, 2010)

So Ateneo has swept 50% of it's games so far. At this point a sweep would just be icing on the cake. I wouldn't really pray for a sweep. History has shown how sweeping teams tend to be rusty at the finals (2006 Juniors and UE in 2007). I'd still pray for the ultimate prize, because that's what the team would want in the first place. A sweep is nothing without the prize in the end. I believe with our crop of championship veterans and high potential newbies, we may well see a three peat in the making. So what do I expect? The same old, Blue Eaglet Basketball: hustle on defense, focus on team work and relentless discipline. And of course, nothing less than One Big Fight!

7 more games in the elims to be played... and if all goes well, 1 more in the Final Four and 2 in the Championship.

Go Ateneo!

Battle of Katipunan - Juniors Edition

Aside from the rivalry between Ateneo and La Salle, the Battle of Katipunan has always been equally fun to watch. Though Ateneo has been in better form as of late, UP seems to always bring their A game whenever they face the Blue and White. If I remember correctly, the last time the Ateneo HS lost to UPIS was in 2007 when Joel Tolentino and Sam Marata still wore maroon jerseys (they are now with the Green Archers). Previous to that was a game I did witness. When a Miggy Maniego led Junior Maroons edged out the Eaglet squad for the right to face the Junior Archers in the finals. The Junior Archers won their first UAAP Championship that year. Aside from those two games, I have never seen UPIS even come close to beating the Blue Eaglets.

Last Saturday's game was like any other Blue Eaglet - Junior Maroon game - total domination. I arrived at the venue at the end of the first quarter with the score at 29-12 in favor of Ateneo. It wasn't much as I expected the team to be leading by a larger amount by that time. But the second period was a totally different story, as Coach Jamike let loose his boys on defense. By the end of the period, Ateneo scored an addition 30 points against UPIS' 5, bringing the half time score to 59-17.

#8 Marky Mercado has adjusted well to the Blue Eaglets tight defensive patterns.
(Blue Eaglets vs UPIS - Filoil Arena, July 31, 2010)

Blowout games, though boring, have a positive side to them, at least to the team that leads. It gives sparingly used players and rookies to get some needed exposure in actual games. And in this particular game, I believe Coach Jamkie used all his players. Even when using 2nd and 3rd stringers, the Blue Eaglets were able to maintain their dominance over UPIS as the ballooned to 52 by the end of the third. And the rampaging Eaglets finished the game with a 101-45 victory.

#5 Mark Gamboa contributed 8 points to help the Eaglets carve out a blowout victory over the UPIS Fighting Junior Maroons.

(Blue Eaglets vs UPIS - Filoil Arena, July 31, 2010)

The game left the Junior Maroons with a similar win-loss slate with their elder brothers at zero wins. One can't help but feel for UP and hope they win one in the long run. For the Eaglets, it is their 6th win in as many matches with only the Junior Archers in their way of a perfect first round. DLSZ is at 3-3 at the moment, but would love to give Ateneo their first loss of the season. But if I know anything about Coach Jamike and his coaching staff is that they wouldn't take any game against any team lightly.

Sparingly used #14 Jan Resurreccion played quality minutes in offense and defense.
(Blue Eaglets vs UPIS - Filoil Arena, July 31, 2010)

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