The View From the Armchair – Game 4 vs Ateneo

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Surprise, Surprise!

In what probably counts as one of the biggest shockers so far in S73, our Green Archers upended the fancied Ateneo Blue Eagles, 66-63 yesterday at the Araneta Coliseum. After trailing by 9 with slightly less than 4 minutes left in the game, many of our supporters had given them up for lost. But in a characteristic (at least for this Archers team) show of their never-day-die attitude, the team smothered the blue-and-white offensive, holding them to a single point while pouring in 13 in an explosive burst that “shocked and awed” the Eagles into submission. At the end, Ateneo still had a faint chance to send the game into overtime, but still reeling from that 3minute burst of intense pressure, they could not execute the play drawn up by Coach Black and had to pin their hopes on their center Chua for tying 3pointers which he missed badly.

Joshua Webb finally broke out of his slump, tallying 12 points despite being tightly marked all game long, and he led a balanced scoring parade with 11 out of the 12 Archers breaking into the scoring column. Last game’s best player Maui Villanueva played a very quiet game, concentrated on the defensive end, and teamed with Andrada to tend the boards where he pulled down 5 rebounds and made the painted area an unfriendly zone for any Blue Eagle who dared venture near the ring.

Can we mention streak in the same breath as Green Archers? With the win, we broke a 2-year, 6-game losing streak, and improbably started a very modest 2-game winning skein.

What went wrong?

Not much, since we won. However, there were obvious lapses in concentration, and still some miscommunication resulting in turnovers, showing that this team still has some work to do to refine its teamwork. There were also miscues on defense, allowing Chua to get free to score on a couple of baseline plays.

What went right

The players never lost their focus or concentration. That’s impressive. There was a game plan drawn up by the coaches, as well as options (plan b, c, d, etc). The players stuck to it, never played out of control, always looked for each other, and except for a couple of botched defensive assignments, were almost always in position where they were supposed to be.

Pregame: Green Archers vs Blue Eagles

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The picture says it all. Yes it’s been that long. The last time La Salle won over Ateneo in an elimination match, it was on Sept 15, 2005 when the Green Archers manhandled the Blue Eagles to the tune of 72-55 en route to a 4-0 season sweep against their rivals that season. Since then, the Archers have only managed to defeat them in 3 playoff matches with the last one being on Sept 30, 2007 when we won our "redemption" championship.Since then, Ateneo has dominated us in the last couple of years. With size, talent and experience still favoring the Eagles this season, the odds are still stacked against the Archers'  finally ending this long head-to-head losing streak.

The Blue Eagles are coming off two successive wins after dropping their initial outing against FEU while we racked up a win-loss-win in that same stretch of games. Despite the loss of Al-Husseini, Reyes and Baclao, Ateneo still has enough talent to make a serious run for a rare three-peat crown. In their last two games, we witnessed how some of their players unexpectedly rose to the occasion especially when the game was on the line. In contrast, the Archers' performance against NU has raised some concerns about the team's consistency and ability to play well against the stronger teams.

Match-ups

Ateneo has the edge in the frontline and in the wings. For the past two seasons, the Archers simply had no answer to Al-Husseini who simply torched us from underneath and even the perimeter. He was a double-barreled threat who could score or dish off to an open teammate if double-teamed.  Baclao was a steady force in the paint and on defense. Even with both gone, the Eagles still have Salva, Buenafe, Chua and rookies Escueta, Erram and Dela Cruz to man the front court, with Salva posing the biggest threat because of his versatility and size.

Our undersized big men must continue to be aggressive on both ends as well get out and run. If Papot can repeat his stellar performance  last Sunday, especially on defense, this will give La Salle's game the much needed boost in the low post. Still, Ateneo’s bulk and experience makes them an edge.