My Lakbayan grade is C-!
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Created by Eugene Villar. |
Playing before an overflow crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, site of the memorable title fight between boxing legends Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, the Eagles delivered the final blows that sent the Archers reeling to their second straight defeat.
Chris Tiu, the Eagles’ main man, buried a three-point shot from the left side that gave Ateneo a 78-74 lead with 21 seconds remaining. His twin charities off Tyrone Tang’s fifth and final foul iced the victory for the Eagles.
It was a sorry loss for the Archers who had the chance to win the game in regulation, but failed to put up a decent shot in the last 13 seconds.
A pint-sized playmaker cum scorer with deep basketball roots stood out among Ateneo’s stars scoring 18 points, most of them coming at the height of the struggle between the two squads.
Jai Reyes, a nephew of national team coach Chot and former pro Gilbert, ran rings around the La Salle defenders, making running jumpers with relative ease.
Ateneo coach Norman Black was ecstatic.
"It feels good and we just like to dedicate this one to the school, to all the supporters because they’ve really been behind us the last two times we played La Salle, we did not play very well," said Black.
"The guys today had a lot of hunger and desire to win and we did a good job rebounding and we had an inside game and our perimeter shooters hit their shots," added Black, who finally tasted a win over La Salle as coach.
The Eagles erected a 58-51 advantage with 4:11 left on a triple by the 19-year- old Reyes.
But JV Casio caught fire and single-handedly brought La Salle back into contention.
CONGRATULATIONS BLUE EAGLES!! Go Ateneo!
