LED BY Team Captain Sarah Mercado and the streaking Ther Aseron, the Lady Eagles defeated the UE Amazons with a final score of 87-76 at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan on September 2 to snap a two-game losing streak. This win keeps the fifth seeded Lady Eagles’ hopes for a final four spot.
The game began with four quick unanswered points from the Amazons as a result of early turnovers from the Blue and White. This slow start however, proved irrelevant as the quarter ended with Ateneo on top with the score of 17-16. Super Senior Samantha Ong led the charge as 6 of her 11 game points came from back-to-back threes shot during the two-minute mark of the quarter. Meanwhile, players like Mercado, Aseron and Danica Jose played support as they all took the ball to the basket and secured defensive stops.
UE stayed in step with the Lady Eagles in the second quarter and even momentarily regained the lead, 31-32, after scoring five straight points through a lay-up from Jholyn Alfuente and a three from Maria Cecilia Junsay with 3 minutes left to play in the second quarter. Coming off a momentum-breaking timeout, the Lady Eagles quickly retaliated with a 9-2 run ignited by an inside shot from Mercado to stretch the lead to 40-34 at halftime.
UE opened the third quarter with back-to-back threes from Junsay and a strong drive from Eliezza Ventura to establish an 8-2 run and even the ballgame at 42 all. The Lady Eagles responded with an impressive 15-2 rally of their own to bring the lead up to as much as 15 at 57-44.
An unsportsmanlike foul called on UE’s Nicole Medina with less than six minutes left during the quarter lit up this Ateneo rally. Aseron’s strong drives and three pointers were too much for UE to handle as she scored 13 of her 20 points in the third. The Amazons repeatedly tried to turn their fortunes around but Ateneo continued to shoot the lights out of the Arena and never left a shot unanswered. At the end of the third, the lead had ballooned to 13 at a score of 67-54.
Refusing to surrender, the Amazons began the deciding quarter with a blitzkrieg that brought the lead down to six at a score of 69-63 at the 6:44 mark. However, an Angelica Morales three brought the lead back up to 9 at 72-63. From then on, the game turned nothing more into an illusion of a comeback for UE despite being able to force the Lady Eagles into penalty with almost 6 minutes left on the clock.
Ateneo played aggressively in the last dying minutes and forced fouls on the Amazons as six of their last eight points came from the stripe. This aggressive play caused UE’s third leading scorer, Cyril Zamora, to foul out of the game with 4:13 still left on the clock.
Near the three minute mark, UE proved once more that they were their own enemies as Medina went on to commit another unsportsmanlike foul when the referees caught her sneaking a punch during a scramble for a rebound, which resulted in an ejection and a potential one-game suspension. Junsay’s fouling out proved to be the nail in the coffin for UE just seconds after she made back-to-back threes to decrease the margin to 85-76. Mercado made both free throws to make the final score 87-76.
Junsay led UE with 28 points. She was 6 of 9 three-point shooting and 5 of 8 from the field. Ventura followed closely behind her with 27 points.
Mercado once again led the Lady Eagles in scoring with an impressive 22 points on an 8 of 9 outing from the line while three other players finished in double digits. Aseron finished with 20 points; Jose notched 15 points and 8 rebounds–7 being offensive rebound–while Ong tallied a total of 11 points.
The Lady Eagles will face fourth seed NU next week on a must-win game for Ateneo on Sunday, September 9, at the FilOil Flying V Arena at 3:30 PM.
