Lady Eagles crush UE, 74-59

It is fitting that this season’s UAAP host, the De La Salle University, turned Season 73 into ‘A Search for Heroes’. The Lady Eagles mounted a heroic effort in the first outing of the  season to crush the University of the East Amazons, 74-59, in a rough and tough physical game.

The first quarter gave us a glimpse of what the entire game would be about as the Lady Eagles took a 20-12 lead—a result of their harassing half-court press forcing turnovers and disrupting the UE offense. Junior Communications major Valerie Chua and team captain Caterina Lopa established their offensive presence early to bombard the UE squad. Cindy Resultay of UE tried her best to keep the first quarter competitive for the red shirts, scoring eight of her 27 points in the opening quarter.

Lopa

The second quarter was no different, if the previous ten minutes served as a preview of the Lady Eagles dominating hustle, the remainder of the first half would be their extended trailer. Ateneo made UE pay for every basket they attempted to make by feeding off the energy of senior Sarah Mercado, who contributed eight points, seven rebounds, and three steals.

The second quarter was a classic case of “hard work always works”. The Lady Eagles were everywhere on the court. From making great defensive rotations to stopping the opposing team’s transition play, the girls of Ateneo were possessed with an unmatchable aggression as they closed the first half out 33-22.

Sarah Mercado was inspiring in her leadership of the second unit which included freshman Allyssa Dogong, sophomores Veronica Limcaoco and Angelina Morales, and junior Samantha Ong. The Lady Eagles dove for loose balls, and crashed bodies with the Warriors under the paint.

The third quarter of this slugger-fest was the magnum opus of Lady Eagles as they went on a 13-5 run early on, pushing the score to 46-27. Denise Tiu’s crucial threes and Valerie Chua’s putbacks led the Lady Eagles to put up a big fight. The quarter ended 57-40 in favor of Ateneo.

Tiu

UE’s Resultay continued to sound her saber as she led all scorers with 20 points at the end of the third. However, it was not enough as the rest of the Red Warriors found difficulty in trying to marshal through the tough Eagle defense.

The fourth quarter saw a series of mini-runs by the women in red but each attempt to crawl back into the game were beaten back by the Lady Eagles. As early as the 8:00 mark, The Ateneo squad enlarged their lead to 62-44 much to the dismay of the outgunned red shirts. What led to the massive offensive push was the Lady Eagle’s ball movement. The team had a total of 16 assists as opposed to UE’s eight. Ateneo’s assits made up for the fact that the rebounding crown went to the red shirts who grabbed 50 boards against Ateneo who yanked down 39.

Lopa led all Eagles with 17 points, while Valerie Chua followed closely after with 13 points to power the Eagles in winning their opening game. Sarah Mercado put the finishing touches on the game by preventing another UE play from being executed with her stellar defensive presence. Allysa Dogong and Denise Tiu chipped in 9 points a piece.

The Lady Eagles’ next assignment is the Far Eastern University Tamaraws. The teams go head to head on July 18, Sunday, 9:45am at the Philsports Arena.

QUARTER SCORES: 20-12, 33-22, 57-40, 74-59

ATENEO 74: Lopa-17, Chua-13, Dogong-9, Tiu-9, Mercado-8, Ong-6, Javier- 4 Limcaoco- 3, Dimaano- 3, and Bo-ot-2

UE 59: Resultay-27, Ventura-11, Junsay-7, Cabrera-5, Tan-4, Vergara-2, Silvestre-2, Floralde-1

By Chris Reyes