ATTENTION ATENEO
Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin wanted to divert the attention from his contract extension to how his squad performed in Saturday’s escape act over Far Eastern University.
“To be honest, you guys should be asking about the game,” Baldwin told the media on Saturday.
For good reason.
The Blue Eagles got their UAAP Season 88 off on the right—albeit thrilling—note, bucking key miscues during the seesaw battle for an 86-83 victory over Far Eastern University at the University of Santo Tomas Quadricentennial Pavilion.
Not that there wasn’t any ground to discuss the contract extension.
Hours earlier, the Eagles dusted off one more worry of the season when they announced that Baldwin agreed to stay on for the Ateneo rebuilding process until Season 91 in 2028.
Baldwin described the process as a “period of uncertainty” but he was glad to “put [the contract negotiations into bed] and “come home without leaving home.”
With that done, the focus now shifts to bouncing back from Ateneo’s worst season under his watch.
“We got to grow up, we got to mature,” Baldwin said. “If we make mistakes like [in the game against FEU], we’re gonna cost ourselves games. La Salle won’t do that, and if we want to be there, slugging it out with the top teams in the league and not just showing up to the party, then we’ve got to learn fast.”
The Eagles hope to improve on their 4-10 (win-loss) campaign in Season 87, with Jared Bahay looking to show the clutch heroics he flaunted in the extension and the impressive debut of one-and-done Kymani Ladi.
Ladi scored 26 points with nine rebounds and three assists in his Ateneo debut.
“Competition was really great,” Ladi said. “It gave me a test of what I can really do for the team. But I try to do the best that I can, and it was a great effort for all of us.”
Bahay, on the other hand, finished with 13 points, five rebounds and four steals, coming through with back-to-back triples that gave the Blue Eagles life after it looked like the Tamaraws were in control at 80-74 near the final two minutes of overtime.
“I just shot it,” said Bahay of his back-to-back threes that got the Blue Eagles right back and set up the comeback win. “I didn’t look at how bad my shooting was in the first half, and I just trusted in my shot.”
It was a stinging setback for FEU that wasted the near triple-double of Janrey Pasaol and a double-double from Mo Konateh.
Pasaol had 24 points, nine rebounds and 11 assists, while Konateh posted 11 points, 23 rebounds and two blocks for the Tamaraws.
Jorick Bautista sent the game into overtime at 74-all with a jumper, with 1.5 seconds left in regulation.
La Salle nipped Adamson, 60-58, in the other seniors’ game.
