Ateneo eyes perfect season with win over La Salle

The storied rivalry is not what it used to be. Undefeated defending champion Ateneo dominated its struggling archrival La Salle, 79-62, with a balanced attack Sunday to clinch a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament. Ateneo Coach Norman Black acknowledged after the game that a perfect season is in sight.

Ateneo center Greg Slaughter, the league's premier big man, got into early foul trouble. But the team didn't miss a beat as veteran Nico Salva and rookie Kiefer Ravena picked up the slack with 19 and 13 points respectively. Ateneo's smallest player, Emman Monfort, also scored 13. Even Ateneo sub Tonino Gonzaga had a breakout game with a career-high 12 points along with four rebounds, three assists and two steals. With the Ateneo romp over its chief rival, second-ranked Adamson may stand as the only team that can stop the Blue Eagles from sweeping the elimination round. A 14-0 record would merit an automatic finals slot where the Blue Eagles will have a thrice-to-beat incentive. The Blue Eagles will next face teams that are at the bottom of the standings—University of the Philippines and National University—next week. The last UAAP seniors team to go undefeated was University of the East in 2007, only to lose to La Salle in the finals. Ateneo-La Salle encounters were usually closer and more exciting in previous years, even during Ateneo's championship runs. Now this easy victory has Coach Norman Black talking about an undefeated season. Black said that he had talked to the players about the possibility of a sweep of the remaining games. “We’ve talked about it (sweep) this week so that it would be out in the open and not whispered about. We just decided to take it one game at a time but if we do have an opportunity to sweep it, we will go for it," said Black. “But at this point, we will just concentrate on UP and try to get our 12th win on Thursday," Black added. With Slaughter sitting with foul trouble for much of the game, his teammates had a chance to shine. “We don’t really rely on one person. We have a balanced team so that even though Greg was out of the game, we can still manage to at least play well," said Black. The Blue Eagles padded their lead to 11 in the third quarter despite Slaughter committing his third foul in that stretch. Slaughter scored his first two points and Salva converted on a DLSU turnover as the Blue Eagles took a 40-29 lead. The Green Archers got to within seven points on Almond Vosotros baskets, 53-46, but the Blue Eagles increased its lead once more in the fourth period on an 11-2 run that put the Blue Eagles in front, 64-48. La Salle's coffin was nailed when Monfort hit a triple and Salva completed a three-point play for a 78-57 edge with 1:21 left in the game. First-year player Arnold Van Opstal had 13 points but he was the lone double-figure scorer for the Green Archers, who remain winless in the second round after four games, their playoff hopes dimming. De La Salle dropped to 4-7, tying NU for fifth place but is now three games behind University of Santo Tomas, which improved to 6-5 after defeating University of the East, 54-45, in the first game. The rivals played before a crowd of 14,229 at the Araneta Coliseum, with the partisan blue vastly outnumbering the green. --OMG/HS, GMA News Games Thursday (Araneta Coliseum) 1 p.m. – UE vs. Adamson 3 p.m. – UP vs. Ateneo