ATENEO could not hurdle the Bay Area Dragons and suffered a 102-93 defeat in a tuneup game Saturday at Moro Lorenzo Sports Complex.
Ateneo vs Bay Area Dragons tuneup recap
Dave Ildefonso paced the Blue Eagles with 18 points and five rebounds, as Ange Kouame played his first game from a partial ACL tear and pumped 14 points and 12 boards.
Forthsky Padrigao chimed in 12 points, five rebounds, five assists, and a steal in the losing cause for Ateneo.
The Blue Eagles could not recover from a 17-point second quarter hole and trailed by as much as 22 points before a 12-2 run allowed the Katipunan side to trim the deficit to just seven, 100-93, after a BJ Andrade three with 41 seconds left.
"We knew it would be tough, a really good workout for us. Happy that the team competed until the very end," said coach Tab Baldwin.
"We haven't had many games, the competition in Japan was good but not at this level. We have a lot of holes, both offensively and defensively. We need to be tougher competitively."
Andrew Nicholson paced Bay Area with 20 points, four rebounds, and a steal.
Myles Powell collected 16 points, six assists, and three rebounds, as Glen Yang tabbed 15 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists.
"[It was] a really good game for us. We wanted to play a team that was physical, played real hard, and played together,” said Dragons coach Brian Goorjian as the PBA guest team won their third friendly.
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