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Ateneo slips past UST, 71-70, keeps unblemished record


The Ateneo Blue Eagles kept their record clean after surviving a scare from the UST Growling Tigers, 71-70, Wednesday, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Ateneo big man Ange Kouame made a shot with almost three minutes left in the game to push the Eagles ahead, 68-67.

Both teams then failed to score before Thirdy Ravena made two from the line to push Ateneo's lead to 70-67 with 11.6 seconds remaining.

After a couple of defensive stops, Matt Nieto pushed the game out of UST's reach when he split his charities to make it 71-67.

UST called for time and despite the two-possession lead, Renzo Subido shot from beyond the arc, to close the game at 71-70. 

Both teams chased each other at the third period with Ateneo making 20 against UST's 19, to end the quarter at 56-53, UST.

Each team had a dominant period during the first half. Ateneo outscored UST in the first period, 23-13, while the Tigers made a comeback in the second quarter, 24-10, to end the first half at 37-33.

Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin over the weekend said the game against UST would be tough.

"I don't want to say 'I told you so,' but I told you so," Baldwin said during the post-game press conference. 

"We understood that game was going to be a really tough game. I feel fortunate we won the game," the multi-titled tactician added.

Ravena gave a double-double performance 17 pts, 10 rebs, while Kouame stuffed the stat sheet with his own, making 11 pts and 10 boards.

For UST, Soulemane Chabiyo listed 25 points and 13 rebounds while three players, Rhenz Abando, Mark Nonoy, and Renzo Subido chipped in nine each.

UST head coach Aldin Ayo said the game showed the lack of maturity of his young players.

"It all boiled down to decision making down the stretch. 'Yung maturity ng mga bata, medyo nagkulang dun sa stretch na walang dead ball, up and down, we were not able to execute our game plan," Ayo said. 

"We prepared for that pero lumabas 'yung pagiging bata eh," he added.

Despite this, Ayo said the result was somehow expected and his players still played well.

"We played well naman. Actually, we were expecting this pero at the back of our minds, sana mag-mature," Ayo said.

"We're a young team, they're going to commit a lot of mistakes, but they'll recover," the champion coach added.

Ateneo is now 3-0 in the standings. UST slid to 2-1.

Box scores:

ATENEO 71 -- Ravena 17, Kouame 11, Mamuyac 10, Navarro 8, Belangel 6, Maagdenberg 6, Ma. Nieto 5, Go 3, Wong 3, Mi. Nieto 2, Andrade 0, Daves 0, Tio 0.

UST 70 -- Chabi Yo 25, Abando 9, Nonoy 9, Subido 9, Huang 6, Cansino 4, Concepcion 4, Ando 2, Paraiso 2, Bataller 0.

Quarterscores: 23-13, 33-37, 53-56, 71-70 —NB, GMA News

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