THE ATENEO Lady Eagles blew a 13-point lead, but used a strong fourth quarter finish to escape with a victory over the Adamson University (AdU) Lady Falcons in both teams’ opening game of Season 80 of the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Women’s Basketball tournament.
With the win, the Lady Eagles move to a 1-0 record to start the season, while the Lady Falcons drop to an opposite record of 0-1.
Jolina Go drilled in five three-pointers to lead all scorers with a final tally of 19 points. Melissa Newsome held down the fort inside, notching a double-double with 10 markers and 12 rebounds. Ateneo also received a strong contribution from rookie Jhazmin Joson, who debuted with a solid line of eight points, five rebounds and three assists.
Jamie Alcoy and Kristeena Camacho led the Lady Falcons with 17 and 13 points, respectively. Nathalia Prado chipped in with eight points and nine rebounds, but shot just 25% from the field, including a 1/7 shooting clip in the second half.
Go provided instant impact to start the match, hitting a triple and a layup to score her team’s first five points. The Lady Falcons, however, had a response for each of her baskets, which kept the scoreline close. The Lady Eagles slowly built up their lead as the quarter progressed, bolstered by the introduction of Joson and a late Hazelle Yam bucket to give them a healthy seven-point lead heading into the second (18-11).
Go continued her hot streak in the second quarter. The Hope Christian product drained two more from behind the arc, giving her 11 points at the first half alone, which paced all players. Her second triple highlighted a 7-0 run by the Lady Eagles to end the period. The team tightened up its defense as well, restricting Adamson to only nine points in the quarter to end the half ahead at (30-20).
The Lady Falcons entered the third quarter with a renewed sense of urgency. After conceding another shot from beyond the arc in the opening minute of the period, Adamson stepped on the gas to nail a 11-2 run, with Alcoy scoring eight during the stretch.
This brought the Lady Falcons to within four points, though another triple by Go ended their run. By the end of the third period, however, another run by Adamson gave them their first lead of the game (44-47) after Camacho completed an and-1 play.
The Lady Falcons began the final period with a perfectly executed baseline play, to leave the Lady Eagles trailing by five. Ateneo was able to claw their way back, with Go draining her fifth three to tie the game 49-apiece.
Midway through the fourth, guard Yam started to control the game. Her coast-to-coast layup and dish to Newsome helped Ateneo regain the lead (57-52), which the team never squandered from that point on. The Lady Eagles responded to a late Camacho scoring outburst with baskets of their own, and held on to win the game.
Just like their counterparts in the men’s division, the Lady Eagles dominated the boards for most of the match, finishing with a 53-35 edge on the glass. Ateneo bigs Newsome, Tina Deacon, Nicole Cancio and Cara Buendia combined to tie the total rebound output of the entire Lady Falcons team.
This domination on the glass was important for Ateneo as their preseason struggles of taking care of the ball continued into the UAAP season. The Lady Eagles gave up 32 turnovers to just 24 for Adamson.
Despite the win, head coach John Flores still wants to see a more consistent full 40 minutes from his girls, “In the end, we were able to hold them back. [But], there’s so many things that can be learned from this game. It materialized today, things that we don’t want to happen to us.”
The Ateneo Lady Eagles have a chance to notch another win in their next game against the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons on Wednesday, September 13 at 10:00 AM at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
Quarter Scores
Atene0-AdU: 18-11, 30-20, 44-47, 61-58
Box Scores
Ateneo: Go – 19, Newsome – 10, Yam – 8, Joson – 8, Uy De Ong – 5, Guytingco – 3, Deacon – 2, Cancio – 2, Buendia – 2, Villamor – 2
Adamson: Alcoy – 17, Camacho – 13, Lacson – 9, Prado – 8, Araja – 3, Razalo – 3, Rosario – 2, Aciro – 2, Villanueva – 1
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