ATENEO NEARS TWICE-TO-BEAT BONUS AFTER ROUT OF FEU
By Maxine Louise Lagman
9 November 2016
AFTER ending De La Salle University’s hopes of a season sweep, the Ateneo Blue Eagles continued to trample over strong opponents and defeated once again the Far Eastern University, 74-59 on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Ateneo almost put their 23-point advantage to waste in the third quarter after being limited by the FEU Tamaraws to 12-18. With Raymar Jose, the Tamaraws trimmed down the double-digit deficit to only seven points.
However, Thirdy Ravena came up big for Ateneo and scored back-to-back baskets that pulled away from FEU again, 67-56.
“I guess we just came out to fight. ‘Yun lang ‘yung nasa utak namin,” said Ravena, who made an impressive performance for Ateneo and made it big in the clutch.
Ravena along with Isaac Go led Ateneo in the last period to pull away from the Tamaraws and avoid a last minute meltdown and claim their second consecutive stunning victory.
FEU Tamaraws had their second straight loss and now ties with Ateneo in the second seed, with an 8-4 win-loss record in the UAAP Men’s basketball tournament.
It will be a tight battle between the two teams now that they share the second spot in the tournament behind La Salle. The Tamaraws and Blue Eagles will have to face their last two remaining games and hopes to secure a twice-to-beat spot in the Final Four.
Ravena finished with a double-double for Ateneo, 15 points and 11 rebounds. Go and Adrian Wong added 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Monbert Arong led the Tamaraws with 15 points. While Prince Orizu and Raymar Jose made it big for FEU with a both a double-double record. Orizu had 11 points and 16 rebounds while Jose finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds.
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