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Eagles, Warriors turn back rivals |
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Written by Staff
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Saturday, 12 July 2008 10:55 |
For Chris Tiu, the heart and soul of Ateneo in the UAAP, a 2-0 start means nothing.
"It’s a confidence booster for us but it still means nothing," said the campus idol after leading his team past Adamson, 72-45, Thursday at the Philsports Arena.
Tiu scored a dozen points, flexing just enough muscles. He was the only one who scored in double figures for Ateneo, but they were just enough to give the team a 2-0 start.
Now they can look forward to the big game against University of the East on Sunday.
We just have to play hard, stay away from injuries and stay fresh because we’re playing UE on Sunday," said Tiu.
Norman Black said that in his four years as Ateneo coach he has never enjoyed a win this big against Adamson, then looked at the Ateneo defense as the early key.
"Our defense is starting to kick in. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to be a better defensive team," said Black, a former import and grand slam coach in the PBA.
"We’ve never win this big of a margin against Adamson," he said inside the pressroom, referring to their 27-point winning margin, the biggest so far this season.
"It’s three games in one week. We play UE on Sunday. And they also had a big win today so it should be an interesting game," said Black of Ateneo, a 79-73 winner over archrival La Salle last Sunday.
Earlier, the UE Warriors took an 82-69 win over National U, and joined Ateneo on top of the early standings.
The Warriors swept last year’s elims only to get swept by La Salle in the finals. Once again, they’re taking one game at a time, and try to worry about the crucial stages later on.
"This is an unpredictable season. All teams are almost equal. What happened last season is very hard to even think of this year. We just want to pick as many wins as we can," said UE mentor Dindo Pumaren.
His Warriors broke loose only in the third quarter where the licensed-to-shoot James Martinez hit three triples from three different angles, the last one making it 63-47.
Ateneo’s defense made the Falcons miss 19 of their 24 three-point attempts and 38 of their 50 shots from closer range. NU was also forced to commit 16 turnovers.
The Falcons took their second straight loss following a three-point defeat against Far Eastern U in last Saturday’s opener, and now they’re in the company of the NU Buldog
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