STUNG the last time out, defending champion Ateneo rose to the challenge of coach Tab Baldwin to dig deep against dangerous University of the East and was aptly rewarded with handsome dividends yesterday.
Propped up by a decisive endgame push, the Blue Eagles turned back the Red Warriors 76-69 to get back on track in the 86th UAAP basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
Earlier, University of the Philippines nipped hard-fighting FEU 80-76 in OT for its fourth straight win.
Six-foot-7 forward Kai Ballungay showed the way for Ateneo with a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds, to go with five assists, while Nigerian big man Joseph Obasa chipped in 16 markers, six boards, and six blocks.
Fil-Am guard Jared Brown also had 11 as the Eagles redeemed themselves from a heartbreaking 71-74 overtime loss to Adamson University five days back and improved to 2-2 in a tie with UE.
The Warriors went into the tiff armed with a 65-58 win over Far Eastern University last Saturday.
“I thought in the first half we didn’t play good defense and it was an individual letdown, the intensity wasn’t there,” Badwin said. “The third quarter wasn’t much better, but the fourth quarter was.
“We really dug down deep and defended much more intelligently,” he added.
Tamaraw Jorick Bautista banged in a three-pointer to knot the count with 30.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter before Fighting Maroon Harold Alarcon missed a jumper with 11 ticks to go.
Ljay Gonzales went the other way and found Miguel Ona inside, but he overpassed it to James Tempra at the top of the key that gave FEU a backcourt violation with 1.7 seconds, giving UP one last chance.
After a timeout, Alarcon found Francis Lopez on the right wing for a turnaround shot, which he made as time expired, but Malick Diouf was called for an offensive basket interference that dragged the match to an extension.
