UAAP: Blue Eagles knock out Growling Tigers, 69-64

The Ateneo Blue Eagles knocked out the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers, the defending champs, from the UAAP Final Four basketball tournament, 69-64, in a closely fought game on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum. The victory thus propelled the Eagles, under coach Norman Black, to another showdown with their formidable rivals, the La Salle Green Archers, on Thursday (September 27) for the last ticket to the best-of-three finals. Armed with a twice-to-beat advantage, the Archers, under coach Franz Pumaren, just need to beat the Eagles once to go the UAAP finals and face the still undefeated University of the East Red Warriors. If the Archers win against the Eagles, that would be the 11th time they would go in to the finals since the Final Four format was introduced in 1994. The Warriors, headed by coach Dindo Pumaren, made it outright to the finals with their rare 14-0 sweep of the eliminations and are just waiting for their opponents. Big man Ford Arao, who is on his last year for the Eagles, proved steady for the Katipunan-based cagers, making a team-high 17 points, along with six rebounds. Chris Tiu, the chief outside gunner of the Eagles, also had a decent game with 14 points, of which six points were made from beyond the arc. But it was second-year player Severino Baclao who saved the Eagles’ day in the fourth quarter. Though haunted with four personal fouls, he helped his team score the crucial points down the stretch when the Tigers' had a run late in the quarter. Tiger wingman Dylan Ababou converted on a three-pointer that brought down the big margin of the Eagles to five at 65-60, with less than 2 minutes left in regulation time. However, Baclao scored from inside the paint to up the Eagles’ lead to 7 points at 67-60. Tiger Mark Canlas then converted on his shot in the next play to trim the Eagles’ lead to five at 67-62 before Arao got the score to 68-62 after making one of two charities. Francis Allera scored the last 2 points for the Tigers before Erik Salamat sealed the Eagles’ victory with a free throw. Aggressive start The Eagles came out aggressively in the first quarter of play as they zoomed to an early lead, 9-2. But the Tigers did some outstanding offensive rebounds that resulted in put-backs, so that they took the first quarter lead at 18-10. The Eagles came back hard in the second quarter with Tiu hitting his outside shots to take the half at 32-30. The Eagles proved to be more efficient in this period, scoring 22 points to the Tigers’ 12. In the third quarter, they continued to break away, with Arao, Baclao, Salamat, and Tiu connecting with enough points to pull the team away from possible danger with a score of 41-30. But the the Tigers were not done yet. They managed to cut the Eagles’ lead to 46-44 highlighted by Ababou’s successful three-point play, with less than four minutes left in the third at 46-44. Rabeh Al- Hussaini made 3 points in two trips to the free throw line, giving the Eagles some breathing space – 4 points away from the Tigers. MVP leading contender Jervy Cruz shot a field goal, with 34 seconds left to keep the Tigers within the Eagles’ range at the end of the third at 55-51. Despite losing the game and missing the chance of going back-to-back to the finals scene, Cruz served his last game this season with another double-double of 17 points and 16 rebounds. Quarter scores (UST-ADMU): 18-10, 30-32, 51-55, 64-69

- GMANews.TV