Lady Eagles beat DLSU, grab third win of the season

After back to back losses, the Ateneo de Manila Lady Eagles bounced back against the De la Salle Lady Archers, 60-53, Sunday afternoon at the Blue Eagle Gym. The Lady Eagles were led by Team Captain Sarah Mercado and Danica Jose who had 16 points each.

Great defense from both teams kept the it a low-scoring game during the first 15 minutes of the first half. The Lady Eagles got the first possession but failed to score until Team Captain Sarah Mercado sunk both of her freethrows with 6:25 seconds left in the 1st quarter. The Lady Archers slowly built their lead until another Mercado freethrow but DLSU was still up 9-3, with 2:14 seconds left. Mercado followed up with a huge 3 to cut the lead to 3 with less than 2 minutes left in the game. The quarter ended with the Lady Archers leading by 2, 7-9.

Both teams were held scoreless for the first 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter thanks to great defensive plays by both teams. Jose’s layup at the 5:56 mark followed by a Mercado trey put Ateneo ahead of La Salle for the first time in the game, 12-11. The team-up of Mercado and Jose, who provided all 14 points of Ateneo in the second quarter, proved to be too much for the Lady Archers. Tight defense and a fast-paced game by the Lady Eagles held the Lady Archers to only 3 points during the entire quarter, gaving them a comfortable lead at halftime, 21-13.

The 3rd quarter was close as both teams were making their shots throughout. Offensive rebounds were no longer a problem for the Lady Eagles as they had a lot of second chance points. The Lady Archer’s looked to eat up on the lead by making back-to-back 3-pointers but were answered by Jennifer Dimaano’s and-1 play with 1:52 left in the third canto. Valerie Chua and Angelina Morales closed the quarter by making 1 free throw each. The lead remained at 8, 37-29 for the Lady Eagles.

Samantha Ong was on fire as she opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back threes and followed by a basket by Claire Aseron. This 8-0 run by the Lady Eagles was done under 2 minutes into the 4th and prompted the Lady Archers to immediately call a timeout. Ong wasn’t done yet as she made another 3 followed by a basket by Denise Tiu. The Lady Eagles built a commanding 17-point lead still with 7:08 left in the game. It didn’t take long for the Lady Archers to fire back as they had a 8-2 run before Chua made 2 consecutive baskets with a little over 3 minutes left in the game. The Lady Eagles looked like they were going to win it as they were up 15 points, 56-41.

The Lady Archers tried to make a run during the final 2 minutes Hannah Viterbo and Aracelie Abaca making sure their baskets go in but the Lady Eagles tightened on the defense and were able to close it out to secure their third win, 60-53.

The Lady Eagles, now with a 3-3 win-loss record, will have their final game of the first round on Wednesday, August 10, against the University of the East Amazons, 3 pm at the Blue Eagle Gym.

Written by: Althea Lapus

STATS OF THE GAME

BOX SCORES

ATENEO (60): Jose 17, Mercado 16, Ong 9, Chua 6, Dimaano 5, Tiu 4, Aseron 2, Morales 1, Bo-ot 0, Javier 0

DLSU (53): Abaca 17, Piatos 10, Viterbo 10, Ong 5, Corcuera 4, Ramos 3, Garcia 2, Wilson 2, Pineda 0, Melendres 0, Gonzales 0, Oyao 0