Photo by Mario T. Dagdag

THE FREE falling Green Archers hoped that an upset over their archrivals could spark a late season push towards the final four but after forty minutes of textbook defense, the Blue Eagles effectively slammed the door on La Salle’s playoff chances, blowing out the De La Salle Green Archers 79-62 on August 28 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Despite managing to bait the six-foot eleven Greg Slaughter into early foul trouble, La Salle’s offense floundered scoring at a dismal 34% in the paint. The Blue Eagles effectively collapsed on penetration and La Salle’s three-point shooting just wasn’t effective enough to warrant respect from the perimeter defense of Ateneo.

While Slaughter’s absence did little to help the La Salle’s chances offensively, the Blue Eagles did miss the center’s presence on the offensive end. Easy scoring opportunities were few and far between in the first half, and the Eagles headed into the break scoring just 31 points.

The second half looked to mirror the first when Slaughter picked up another foul just four minutes in, but a gutsy call by coach Norman Black paid dividends when the center’s presence opened up a 9-2 run over the next few minutes, blowing the game open for the Blue Eagles.

While the Blue Eagle’s offense improved with each successive quarter, notching 14, 17, 22 and 27 points in each quarter, the La Salle offense stagnated. LA Revilla, who exploded for 22 points in the last matchup against Ateneo, was notably quiet throughout the contest, finishing with just six points.

Bouncing back from his poor performance against the UE Red Warriors, Nico Salva was dominant at times in the second half where he scored 13 of his game high 19 points. Salva repeatedly took advantage of opposing forwards who were simply to flat footed to keep up with the dynamic scorer.

A pair of fifth year guards in Emman Monfort and Tonino Gonzaga did a superb job in providing an offensive boost finishing with 13 and 12 points respectively.

While the win guarantees one of the top two seeds in the Final Four, and with it the all important twice to beat advantage, the loss drops La Salle to seven losses in 11 games, falling two games behind UST for the last Final Four spot with just three games remaining.

The Blue Eagles next face the UP Maroons on Thursday, September 1, 3:00 p.m at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Scoring Leaders

ADMU 79 – Salva 19, Ravena 13, Monfort 13, Gonzaga 12, Slaughter 8, Chua 7, Long 6, Tiongson 1, Erram 0, Sumalinog 0, Golla 0, Austria 0

DLSU 62 – Van Opstal 13, Vosotros 9, Tampus 9, Torres 8, Revilla 6, Villanueva 6, Atkins 4, de la Paz 3, Paredes 2, Webb 2, Gotladera 0, Mendoza 0, Marata 0

Quarter scoring: 14-11, 31-26, 53-42, 79-62