Ateneo opens title defense with win against Adamson

The Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles started their title defense campaign with a win over the Adamson Soaring Falcons, 70-52, Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

With 4:22 left in the game, Jerrick Ahanmisi cut the deficit to five, 57-52, after an Adamson run that started late in the third period. However, the blue-and-white squad limited Adamson from scoring until the end of the game, eventually making  22 points against the Falcons' 16 for the final canto.

The Falcons outscored Ateneo in the third period, 16-13, but it was not enough to take over the Blue Eagles since the San Marcelino-based squad had a dismal 16-6 first quarter performance.

Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin was aware of the difficulty of facing Adamson even before the game.

"Well, we knew it was going to be tough. That's the last team that I really wanted to see in the first game," said Baldwin. 

"Franz [Pumaren] and his team, they just play so hard, they play intelligently," the former national team coach added.

Two players from the Katipunan-based squad registered a double-double performance: Angelo Kouame with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Thirdy Ravena with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Matt Nieto, on the other hand, chipped in 14 points.

Since the Falcons almost closed the gap in the fourth period, Baldwin said they could have still improved their defense.

"I thought defensively, you know, apart from a couple of lapses, we were pretty good. But unfortunately, it looked like we did never shot a basketball before today. So pretty abysmal," Baldwin said.

"We're not taking care of the ball the way we should. I think we're just in a little bit too much of a hurry at the offensive end, and no need for that, you know. I expect more from the players, more composure, more professionalism. And I think if we had calmed our mind a little bit, perhaps we would have been a bit better the offensive thing, especially in the first half, we generated a lot of good shots and just didn't hit them," he added.

Val Chauca led the Falcons with 17 points, and Pumaren called him a welcome addition to the team. "We hit a jackpot on him. I think that's one one-and-done player that you can really invest into. He can help the younger guys, he can nurture the younger guys," Pumaren said.

Ateneo will see action again on Sunday against archrival La Salle and Baldwin expects it to be "fun."

"Sunday will hopefully be a lot of fun. We'll have a big, big full stadium and you know La Salle's got a big mission in front of them, it's a stated mission, they want to make it back to the playoffs, and we will be their first game," Baldwin said.

Adamson will take on National University on Saturday.

"We don't know what NU will be doing, but advantage, I don't think they saw the real Adamson a while ago. Maybe that will work to our advantage too," said Pumaren. —JST, GMA News

Box scores:

Ateneo (70) - Kouame - 17, Nieto, Matt - 14, Ravena - 10, Navarro - 9, Belangel - 7, Go - 4, Nieto, Mike - 3, Wong - 3, Mamuyac - 2, Tio - 1, Credo - 0, Daves - 0.

AdU (52) - Chauca - 17, Ahanmisi - 7, Douanga - 7, Camacho - 4, Fermin - 4, Flowers - 4, Manlapaz - 4, Lastimosa - 3, Magbuhos - 2, Bernardo - 0, Mojica - 0, Sabandal - 0, Yero - 0, Zaldivar - 0.