Ateneo aims for 8th straight win vs De La Salle on Holy Tuesday (Sabong News)
Author
Carlo Anolin
Date
APRIL 11 2022
Reigning champion Ateneo guns for its eighth straight win of the season against third-seeded De La Salle in the UAAP Season 84 men’s basketball tournament on Holy Tuesday, April 12 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
The Blue Eagles, who remained unbeaten in 33 straight matches since October 2018, had swept the first round elimination after a 91-80 routing of the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers
, who waxed hot with 20 points built on four triples.
Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin, however, was displeased with some of the calls and officiating against UST, prompting assistant tactician Sandy Arespacochaga to talk to the press post-game.
This time, Ateneo, which took the solo lead at 7-0, hopes to bury the past and looks to repeat over De La Salle in their 7 p.m. encounter after cruising past the Taft-based squad with a 74-57 victory last April 2.
“I think every game is really going to be a dog fight, we’re not looking at a record for how many wins we have,” said Arespacochaga. “That’s something we’ve been stressing to our players even in this game, the game’s not over, so we’ve been coaching them, we’ve been hard on our players from the start to the very end.”
Such factors were also addressed by Baldwin, stressing that his wards should carry on to finish the game and play consistent basketball whether it’s a one-sided affair or not.
“We have a lot of lessons that we can learn from the first round and hopefully, the key is we improved heading to the next round so we’ll watch them and we’ll prepare for the next opponent,” added Arespacochaga.
The Green Archers, who have a 5-2 record, ended the first round on a winning note as
to get away with a 61-58 win against the Adamson Soaring Falcons, who slipped seventh place with a 1-6 slate.
De La Salle head coach Derrick Pumaren is expecting a tougher second round and told his players to play more as a team — offensively and execution-wise.
“This is the second round. One mistake and it might cause you the game, and that might cause you eliminated in the Final Four,” said Pumaren.
In other games, No. 4 National University (4-3) and second-seeded team University of the Philippines (6-1) open the hostilities at 10 a.m., fifth place Far Eastern University and Adamson clash in their 12:30 p.m. match, and UST (2-5), which sits at No. 6, battles the winless University of the East (0-7) at 4:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the UAAP will take a short break in observance of the Holy Week and resume its games and operations next Tuesday, April 19.
