ATENEO inched closer to the Final Four with an important 80-74 win over University of the East in the UAAP Season 86 men's basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday.
Jared Brown steered the Blue Eagles above .500 with a career-high 21 points on 6-of-11 three-point shooting. The 7-6 (win-loss) record is enough to assure Ateneo of at least a playoff for a Final Four berth.
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"I thought we were looked a little bit disinterested today there's no excuse for that. It was disappointing and turning the ball over as much as we did not be more dominant in the rebounding when we had, you know, they're missing Precious (Momowei) and and we had a significant size advantage.
"I thought we fell in love with the three a little too much. But again, I think UE wanted us to shoot the three. So we shot it pretty well which is which was good, but I think we should have you know, had a more determined mindset to dominate the paint," Baldwin said.
Adding fuel to the fire of Brown's hot hands were key hits from Kai Ballungay (15 points) and Joseph Obasa's double-double of 13 points and 11 boards.
With one foot now on the Final Four door, Ateneo can formally secure the Final Four spot with an Adamson loss to NU later in the day as the Red Warriors' eighth loss (5-9) has already knocked them out from semis contention.
The scores:
Ateneo (80) – Brown 21, Ballungay 15, Obasa 13, Espinosa 5, Koon 5, Chiu 5, Amos 4, Nieto 3, Quitevis 3, Gamber 3, Credo 2, Celis 1, Lazaro 0, Bongo 0, Tuano 0.
UE (74) – Remogat 22, Lingolingo 14, Galang 12, Sawat 12, Alcantara 6, Maglupay 5, Langit 2, Tulabut 1, Cruz-Dumont 0, Spandonis 0, Cabero 0, Gilbuena 0, Manalang 0.
Quarterscores: 18-21, 42-34, 62-48, 80-74
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