UAAP: Ateneo whips NU, moves to a win away of an eliminations sweep

Bobby Ray Parks of NU wrestle Kirk Long of the Ateneo for the ball during their match in the second round of the 74th season of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011. The Blue Eagles whipped the Bulldogs, 61-39, and is a win away from a sweep and an outright berth for the finals. AUGUST DELA CRUZ/Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – Only one more team stands in the way of Ateneo.

The Blue Eagles just made short work of National University anew, 61-39, and move to just a win away from an outright finals berth Saturday in the 74^th UAAP men’s basketball tournament.

Struggling to bust the Bulldogs’ zone all game, the defending champion turned to its dogged defense and held NU to its lowest scoring output since the archiving of statistics in the UAAP in 2003.

“We played shutdown defense today. We couldn’t shoot [through their zone defense], but I told the boys to do their job in the defensive end,” said coach Norman Black, whose squad’s remaining assignment is the gritty Adamson.

“We’ll go for it now [the sweep], we don’t have much of a choice,” said Black, jokingly.

A telling third period exploit triggered by a 10-0 blast to conclude the first half, gave the Blue Eagles their commanding advantage as they dropped 22 points compared to the Bulldogs’ eight in one just one quarter.

Mainstays Kirk Long and Nico Salva and newcomers Kiefer Ravena and Greg Slaughter took turns in the demolition job, churning out double-double scoring.

Salva, whose slam with 7:36 in the fourth quarter spiked the lead to 24 points, 55-31, produced a game-best 14 points even as Slaughter, Ravena and Long added 13, 12 and 10 markers respectively.

Long, who was tasked to contain NU Ray Parks’, held him to just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting and forced to five turnovers.

“I just tried to make sure to bother his jump shot,” said Long, as Ateneo clobbered NU inn their two meetings this season.

The Bulldogs, reeling to their eight defeat but remains in contention for the final four spot, even led by 19-16 in the second quarter before they were held spellbound by the Blue Eagles for the next five minutes.

Parks and Emmanuel Mbe contributed 10 points each in a losing cause for NU.