From dominating the board and pouncing on errant passes to steering away from any meltdowns, UST made sure it convincingly foiled Ateneo to start its PCCL semis campaign.
Though it’s not exactly the UAAP, the Growling Tigers showed how much they have improved since being swept by the Blue Eagles in the finals.
And Tigers’ gunner Jeric Teng was the sparkplug, churning out 22 huge points and all but five in the first half where UST first took over for good.
“I wanna give Melo (Afuang) and (Jeric) Fortuna a championship, even just in the PCCL,” said Teng, who also had five rebounds and three assists, in an interview.
The last time UST defeated Ateneo was in the first round of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament, and has succumbed to the Blue Eagles for the next four times.
These two teams also met in the 2012 Sandugo Unigames semifinals in Bacolod.
This time, the Growling Tigers beat the Blue Eagles to almost every rebound with a 48-28 advantage in that department.
By the third quarter, UST has stretched the gap to as wide as 16 points on a tough one-handed runner by an in-the-zone Teng.
Ateneo managed to bring it down to eight with under three minutes to go with Nico Salva, who was scoreless in the third, starting to the heat up.
But Fortuna, who’s playing his last few games in a UST jersey, finally uncorked a trey after seven tries which doused any fire left of the Blue Eagles with 1:24 to go.
Fortuna ended with nine markers despite a flimsy shooting night while Karim Abdul continued his solid showing with 17 points, six rebounds, two assists and three steals.
More than its firepower, UST’s held up against Ateneo’s stacked line up, holding Salva, Greg Slaughter, Kiefer Racena to under 13 markers.
The Growling Tigers face NCAA champion San Beda on Friday as the PCCL single round robin semifinals continues, with the top two moving on the a best-of-three finale.