Photo from UAAP
MANILA, Philippines—Ateneo leaned on a strong start and used its depth to pull away in a 91-80 victory over University of Santo Tomas on Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena.
The defending champions Blue Eagles wrapped up their first round of eliminations with a spotless 7-0 record, hiking their overall winning streak to 33 games.
The Tigers dropped to 2-5
Chris Koon had a triple late in the first period to push Ateneo ahead, 25-12, and then had an assist late in the second to Matt Daves that gave the Blue Eagles a 50-40 spread, 53 seconds remaining before the break.
In between those was a dizzying rotation of contributors—BJ Andrade, Tyler Tio, Ange Kouame and Josh Lazaro took turns dropping buckets on a hapless UST defense.
The Tigers, however, did make things interesting in the third period.
With veteran Sherwin Concepcion waxing hot—the holdover from the 2019 team that reached the finals had three triples in that quarter—UST came to within seven points a couple of times, the last at 55-48, 6:41 remaining.
But SJ Belangel knocked in a triple, while Kouame and Gian Mamuyac knocked down shots of their own as the Eagles entered the fourth sitting on a 74-56 cushion.
Tio then unpacked eight straight points to begin the fourth and Ateneo took an 82-58 edge that set cemented the win.
Tio finished with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field to lead Ateneo, while Andrade added 10, throwing in four assists and two steals. The Eagles made 13 of their 36 attempts from beyond the arc as they negated the Tigers’ main weapon.
UST made 12 of 37 shots from behind the arc, with Concepcion making 6-of-14 from that space to lead UST with 22 points and seven rebounds.