Ateneo Still Survives (for Sep 28)

Ateneo Lives Another Day

“One big fight” turned out to be one more game. Chris Tiu came alive in the second half then pumped in the killer shots in the homestretch as Ateneo stunned archrival La Salle, 64-65, to live one more day in the 70th UAAP stepladder semifinals at the packed and rocking Araneta Coliseum.

Tiu fired bricks in the first 20 minutes of play, but buried a long triple in the last two minutes before driving inside for the go-ahead layup with 7.3 seconds left. The second-seeded Green Archers, who came into the game carrying a twice-to-beat advantage, missed out on the last play with Bader Malabes misfiring on a three-point attempt as time expired.

Ateneo’s scrambling win thus forged a winner-take-all match on Sunday at 3 pm. The winner will face University of the East, who took outright the first finals slot after sweeping the elimination round.

The Blue Eagles were given up for dead, trailing by five to start the fourth period and were almost done in with two minutes remaining. JV Casio’s split freethrow made it 64-58 but Ateneo erased the deficit on a 7-0 run, on Tiu’s exploits and on a layup by Ford Arao with 51 seconds to play.

Tiu’s triple closed the Eagles to within 64-61, 1:54 remaining. Casio’s three-point try rimmed out in the next play before PJ Walsham bungled another attempt from beyond the arc. Kirk Long rebounded Tiu’s missed triple and fed Ford Arao for an easy layup to beat the shotclock, 64-63.

Malabes then muffed an off-balanced layup to set up Tiu’s winning play in the final 7.3 seconds. La Salle inbounded to Casio from the top of the key before finding a wide-open Malabes from the left side.

The loss was a nail-biter for the Archers, who led most of the way and took control early on. They gained headway after the half, thanks to a seven-point third-quarter output from Ty Tang, who topscored with 20 points. Casio added 11 but struggled with only two treys in the game and scored only one point in the fourth quarter.

“We’re happy we won the game,” said Coach Norman Black. “We couldn’t do anything on offense. Luckily, our defense held up.”

“Tiu struggled the entire game, but he came up with the big shots when the game’s on the line,” Black said of Tiu, who’s apparently taken La Salle’s number with three game-winning shots against the Archers this season.

Tiu, who finished with 14 markers, erupted with seven points in the final period after being held to only one point in the first half. Arao led the Eagles with 19, including 10 in the first quarter. Noy Baclao and Eric Salamat each had eight.

The win was the Eagles’ third in four meetings against the Archers, whose only victory earned them the no. 2 slot in the stepladder semifinals. Sunday’s meeting assured the two teams’ a fifth encounter, with the winner advancing in the best-of-three championship series against the Red Warriors next week.

La Salle led at the end of every quarter, and was poised to put the game under wraps after entering the fourth period at 52-47. The Archers took a six-point lead twice, the first one at 54-48 on Rico Maierhoffer’s foiled three-point-play attempt.

Baclao’s back-to-back tip-in shots tied the game for the last time at 54-all. But Cholo Villanueva made a fastbreak layup and Tan hit four straight points to put the Archers again on top, 63-58, time down to 2:20.

NOTES: The game started 20 minutes later than the scheduled time, at 3:20, amid a heavy downpour outside the Big Dome…Ateneo tweaked its starting lineup for the game, putting in Raymond Austria and Zion Laterre in the starting five. The Eagles had Tiu and Escueta at the point and Arao at center. The Archers opened with Tang, Casio, Malabes, O.J Cua and Ferdinand, the same five who started in La Salle’s 70-69 win in the knockout match…La Salle had seven fastbreak points while Ateneo only had 2. The Eagles, however, scored 11-2 in second chance points…Ateneo’s bench outscored La Salle’s, 32-19…Last night’s 65-64 decision marked the fourth straight time that the Ateneo-La Salle match was decided by three points or less. Ateneo swept the elimination round meetings, 80-77 and 89-87, while La Salle took the playoff match for the no. 2 seed, 70-69…Tiu exchanged pleasantries with Tang at the 15-foot line when the latter was preparing to take freethrows with 3:39 to play in the fourth quarter. The two were former teammates at Xavier School. Tang made both charities to put the Archers ahead by five points…The Ateneo-La Salle Part V on Sunday assured the most number of meetings between the archrivals since 2002. The two also played five times in that year, although three of the five games were in the championship series.