MANILA, Philippines — Greg Slaughter posted his sixth double-double of the season as Ateneo rolled at full speed to its 12th victory at the expense of University of the Philippines, 73-58, Thursday at the 74th UAAP men’s basketball competition.
The seven-foot center slammed in 18 points, 12 coming from the stripe, and pulled down 18 rebounds while forward Nico Salva and reserve center Justin Chua added 16 and 11 points, in that order, to orchestrate another victory for the Blue Eagles.
Ateneo, which assured itself of the top seed in the semifinals and are two wins away from an outright finals stint, did most of the damage in the fourth quarter marked by a 19-2 blast which widened the gap from UP, 73-49.
Top-drawer rookie Kiefer Ravena, leading the race for Rookie-of-the-year, only reached half of his average of nearly 15 points per game as he contributed only seven with four assists.
But it wasn’t an impressive victory for the defending champions, as they struggled for the first three quarters, having 22 turnovers, compared to the Maroons’ seven.
For coach Norman Black, though, statistics are the least of his concerns at this point of the season — just as long as the Blue Eagles keep on racking up the wins.
“I really don’t have any idea how games are going to pan out at this point,” said Black. “Statistically, I’m not that concerned anymore. My concern is how to get the wins.”
The Maroons were only trailing by seven, 47-54, at the start of the fourth quarter before two-guard Mike Silungan and the rest of the squad were held to just two points in the next seven minutes.
Silungan, whose performance has been spotty as of late, finished with 16 points and eight rebounds as UP dropped eight unanswered points in the last 1:30 minutes to bring down the lead to a respectable margin.
UP, which tied with University of the East in the last spot with 2-10 record, started out strong and even led the Eagles by six, 28-22, midway in the second quarter.