When the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament kicked off in September, there was a near consensus that Ateneo was an unbeatable team.
After all, the Blue Eagles placed fourth in the Jones Cup in Taiwan as the Philippine representatives but their once deemed invincible armor was immediately dented in their first game of the year.
Adamson University stunned Ateneo, 74-70, in the two teams’ first game of Season 81 and that setback served as ab early wakeup call for the Blue Eagles.
Ateneo was eager to bounce back from it and it did in the form of a 62-48 blowout win in the second round Sunday at Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Star forward Thirdy Ravena said the whole team’s sole focus in their rematch with the Soaring Falcons was to vindicate their earlier loss.
“Every single game is a championship game especially against Adamson that beat us in the first round,” said Ravena in Filipino. “We really focused as a team and we listened to the coaches because they’re the ones who devised the game plan.”
And one player that defending champions were worried about was shooting guard Jerrick Ahanmisi who torched them to the tune of 23 points in their first meeting.
Ravena also pointed to Ahanmisi’s 24-point performance in the Soaring Falcons’ 80-72 win over University of the Philippines in their previous game.
Ahanmisi had a 15-point explosion in the third quarter in Adamson’s victory against UP and that was what Ravena was weary of against the Soaring Falcons.
“We made sure that we had Adamson’s key players under our defense,” said Ravena, who had 10 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks for Ateneo. “There’s Jerrick and he can easily cause an explosion so we needed to be aware of that.”