Hot-shooting Eagles battle Maroons, look to avoid second-half letdowns
Tab Baldwin talked about the choice between discussing the first three quarters of basketball that Ateneo displayed against La Salle or that one quarter when everything went south.
“We’ll do both in the confines of our dugout and in our next practice [and] in the video session,” he said last Sunday after an 81-74 victory over La Salle in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament.
“I think that the contrast between the first three [quarters] and the fourth is so stark that coaches often talk about opportunities to learn for their team and I don’t think anybody in our organization has gotten any doubts that we have a lot to learn from what happened in the fourth quarter.”
The Blue Eagles looked like they would cruise to a fourth straight victory in as many games but eventually had to gut out the victory.
“That phrase just sticks in my throat to even say [after] you’re up … 33 or something like that, to say we pulled it out,” Baldwin said. “I won’t sleep well Monday night, I’m sure, as we really start to reflect on this and prepare for UP.”
Ateneo plays University of the Philippines on Wednesday.
For the season, Ateneo has consistently started out strong, only to falter in the second half.
Even with the wild turnaround against La Salle in the final two periods and the strong finish in the Eagles’ victory over the Adamson Falcons, Ateneo’s plus-minus in each half goes from +9.2 in the first two quarters to -2.2 in the last two.
That might be the case for most teams, as efficiency reasonably always goes down as the game progresses because fatigue starts to creep in, but it might be doubly troubling for a squad that has relied heavily on its perimeter game this season.
Ateneo averages 76.5 points per game this season, No. 2 behind University of Santo Tomas, according to stats provided by Piong Ducanes and the UAAP Stats Group. The Eagles are drawing 38.5 points (50.3 percent) of that from the perimeter, anchored on a league-best makes (36) and percentage (34.6) from beyond the arc.
Poor paint job
Ateneo has struggled inside, ranking seventh in points in the paint at 23 in the game, which the Eagles try to make up at the stripe, where they are No. 2 at 15 made free throws per game.
So when the Eagles face the Maroons on Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena after the 2 p.m. duel between the NU Bulldogs and the Adamson Falcons, the question will be if Baldwin’s squad can sustain their strong starts.
It’s a question made urgent by the fact that UP is one of the more physical defenses in the league, something that Baldwin made sure to point out.
“We know that you piece is gonna it’s gonna be a rugged game,” Baldwin said.
But UP isn’t the only one playing solid defense. Ateneo is best at field goals allowed, yielding just 36.96 percent this season—No. 1 in the league. That’s a big turnaround from last season, where the Katipunan squad ranked last, allowing 41.4 percent.
