Streak stays alive, Ateneo 55-AdU 52

The 13-year winning streak stays alive.

The Ateneo Blue Eagles beat the Adamson Soaring Falcons, 55-52, last Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum, continuing their mastery of the baby blue squad. The game, fondly referred to as the “Battle of the Birds”, gave Ateneo solo-second and that prized twice-to-beat advantage.

A standard issue starting five of Ryan Buenafe and Frank Golla at forward, Eric Salamat and Kirk Long at guard, and Justin Chua at center greeted the Adamson five at center court.

Adamson grabbed the ball at the opening tip, but 20 seconds into the game, the referees whistled to stop the clock. In an odd swing of things, Adamson had apparently brought the ball down to the wrong side of the court.

In the first quarter, Ateneo showcased their defensive prowess to stymie the Falcons’ offense. Only senior guard Lester Alvarez was able to penetrate the Eagles’ defenses. A nice pass from Art dela Cruz to the cutting Nico Salva finished a quarter controlled by Ateneo, 16-10.

The second quarter would turn out to be ugly for the Eagles. Ateneo only had 6 points in a quarter marred with turnovers and too many point-blank misses. It took Adamson forward Eric Camson’s runner at the 7-minute mark to break the scoring drought. Right after that, Salamat was fouled. He put in both free throws to put points on board for Ateneo at last. However, Adamson scoring leader Alex Nuyles would score four straight points to bring Adamson within one with three minutes left to go in the half, 17-18. In the waning seconds, Chua hit a perimeter jump-shot and score off a defensive stop, which ensured a 22-21 Ateneo lead at halftime.

The second half began on strange note. Adamson was awarded two technical free throws and ball possession after Ateneo big man Jason Escueta was evicted from the playing court for “wearing the wrong uniform”. Alvarez made both free throws to give Adamson the lead, 23-22. A rare Jan Colina three would add to that lead, leaving the Blue Eagles down 22-26 before ten seconds had even elapsed in the third.

But Buenafe seized control of the game. He would do a little bit of everything–facilitate the offense, haul down rebounds, and score inside against the taller Adamson players. In one memorable play, Buenafe rebounded a desperation heave from Salva, and powered it in for the deuce. The Blue Eagles as a whole continued to sink their free throws, which padded the lead and made it 41-34 as they entered the last quarter.

The Eagles’ fourth quarter started on a scary note as Frank Golla fell to the court clutching his leg after fighting for the ball and squeezing through a couple of Falcons. From then on, it would become a battle of attrition wherein Ateneo and Adamson would trade baskets one after another as the lead switched from side to side. Adamson stayed keen on playing the perimeter and hit several difficult outside shots to wrest away the lead from the Blue Eagles. Buenafe kept the game close by scoring at will. Golla shook off a bruised leg and came back to play in the clutch.

Eman Monfort would give the lead back to Ateneo with a booming triple that energized the entire Ateneo gallery. However, he was answered on the opposite end with a three by Alvarez, resulting in a 52-51 Adamson lead with two minutes left. That would be last time Adamson would lead though, as good defense from the Hail Mary squad would muff Adamson’s chances at countering when Ateneo went on a mini-run of their own to outscore the Falcons in the dying seconds.

The Falcons had one more chance to score, but Nuyles was called for the offensive foul as he pushed off Kirk Long with 18.6 seconds left. Eric Camson fouled Monfort, who made both charities to finish the game, 55-52.

Coach Norman Black acknowledged that the match wasn’t a pretty game, but he was quick to give praise both to the Adamson squad as well as to his Blue Eagles.

“It was a real scramble to score,” he said. “Adamson knew how to defend the things we did, knew how to adjust. Thankfully, we also knew what they wanted to do, and how to adjust to their style of play.” He cited defense and teamwork as the main proponents of the victory.

Ryan Buenafe and Nico Salva registered similar double-doubles. Buenafe led the Eagles with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Salva bounced back from being scoreless against UE and had 13 points and 12 rebounds.

When asked about his great play, Buenafe simply said that, “We wanted to bounce back from the loss to UE. We’re targeting the twice-to-beat advantage.”

By Diego Santiago