MANILA, Philippines—Norman Black banked heavily on his backcourt aces in recent games. Now the Ateneo coach expects his big men to click when the Blue Eagles kick off their second-round campaign Saturday in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament.
The back-to-back champion Eagles, who wrapped up the first round with a 5-2 record, target a share of second versus the University of the Philippines Maroons at 2 p.m. at the Araneta Coliseum.
“We’re in a pretty good position right now,” said Black. “But I’ll probably develop our big men a bit more in the second round. Hopefully, they can contribute a bit more offensively and defensively.”
La Salle, running fourth with a 4-3 slate, tries to avenge its first-round defeat to unpredictable National University at 4 p.m.
Idle Far Eastern University kept the top spot at 7-1 even after the Tamaraws absorbed their first setback last Thursday against the Adamson Falcons, who grabbed solo second at 6-2.
“We still need to work on many things,” said coach Eric Gonzales, whose Bulldogs tripped the Green Archers, 59-55, in their first encounter last July 15.
“We have to focus on the team’s discipline and do the things that we should do.”
National U finished the first round with a 3-4 card, punctuated by 70-66 victory over the Maroons on Aug. 7 where the Bulldogs rallied from 22 points down in the second half to prevail.
But for coach Boyet Fernandez, it was a heartbreaker the Maroons hope to build on.
“Hopefully, we can learn from it,” said Fernandez. “Everybody thinks we’re out right now, but they showed [in that game] what they can do on court. We’ll stick to our system.”
The Eagles routed the Maroons, 78-53, in their Aug. 5 encounter where State U’s highly touted rookie Mike Silungan was held to a personal-low five points.
Silungan, a 6-foot-3 Fil-Am shooter, led the Maroons in the first round with averages of 13.3 points. 4.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
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