UNIVERSITY of the Philippines shot the lights out en route to a 95-70 victory over Katipunan rival Ateneo on Wednesday in the Filoil EcoOil Preseason Cup at the Filoil EcoOil Center in San Juan City.
Veterans Harold Alarcon and Malick Diouf each scored 16 points while CJ Cansino added 14 points as the Fighting Maroons dominated the Blue Eagles to bounce back from two straight losses in the preseason tournament.
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“I was happy with our consistency today. We were executing on offense and at the same time maganda 'yung movement ng bola namin," said UP coach Goldwin Monteverde.
The Fighting Maroons were solid on defense, denying Ateneo of good looks on the way to building a 29-point lead, 72-43. They shot an efficient 51.1 percent (23/45) from two-point distance and 41.9% (13/31) from beyond the arc.
The Blue Eagles cut the UP lead down to 13 points early in the fourth quarter, 74-61, but the Fighting Maroons were able to weather the storm behind timely buckets from Harold Alarcon and Francis Lopez that pushed the cushion back to 22, 88-66.
Ateneo struggled to find their shooting touch in their tournament debut, going 9-of-38 (23.7%) from rainbow country. Joseph Obasa led the way with 13 points and 11 rebounds while rookie Mason Amos added nine.
The Loyola based squad was without head coach Tab Baldwin, who is expected to be back on the Blue Eagle bench in the next games.
The scores:
UP 95 - Diouf 16, Alarcon 16, Cansino 14, Fortea 12, Lopez 11, Felicilda 5, Pablo 5, Torculas 5, Torres 5, Andres 2, Belmonte 2, Gagate 2, Abadiano 0, Belmonte 0, Briones 0
ATENEO 70 - Obasa 13, Amos 9, Credo 8, Ballungay 7, Padrigao 7, Brown 6, Chiu 6, Bongo 3, Gomez 3, Quitevis 3, Tuano 3, Lazaro 2, Garcia 0, Nieto 0
Quarterscores: 10-26, 28-47, 48-72, 70-95.
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