Coming from a heartbreaking loss against the FEU Lady Tamaraws and a crushing defeat against the NU Lady Bulldogs, the Lady Falcons needed to dig deep to arrest the funk they were in.
Saturday morning, the Adamson University Lady Falcons outworked last season’s runners-up Ateneo de Manila University Lady Eagles in a stunning upset, 74-62, at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Lady Falcons basically outhustled the Lady Eagles in the game. In the rebounding department, the smaller Adamson squad were able to secure 71 rebounds, 37 on the offensive end, compared to just 37 total rebounds for the lady cagers of Loyola Heights. In addition, even if both teams committed 28 turnovers each, the San Marcelino-based squad were able to score 30 points off of it.
“They played inspired basketball,” first year Lady Falcons head coach Mike Fermin said. “I told them na kung anomang motivation ang makukuha nila for this game, try to find it.”
Leading the Lady Falcons charge was a monster double-double by Jonalyn Lacson. The Adamson sophomore finished the game wit 15 points and 20 rebounds. Kaye Pingol added 16 markers while two other Lady Falcons were able to tally double-figures in the rebounding department.
“Down kami nung sa NU, down yung spirit,” Fermin added. “From a heartbreaking long against FEU tapos binaon kami ng NU, sabi ko sa kanila try to find the motivation [to bounce back] within you. Laro lang tayo, who knows?”
Down by as much as nine points in the second frame, the Lady Eagles were able to go on a 8-2 rally capped by a Jonette Uy De Ong triple to give Ateneo a 39-36 lead midway through the third canto. However, turnovers plagued Ateneo and failed to box out that led to a counter run by Adamson led by Jamie Alcoy.
The Lady Falcons were then able to shackle the Lady Eagles with a 14-0 run to start the final frame highlighted by long threes from Jo Razalo and Myra Osano to give Adamson a game-high 16 point lead, 65-49, with 5:34 remaining in the game. Ateneo was able to cut the lead to just seven, 67-60, with a minute left but Lacson was able to score underneath that proved to be the dagger of the game.
“For the past two days, wala kaming pinag-usapan kung hindi paano namin gagamiting yung speed namin to counter their size,” Fermin furthered. “Lahat halos duma-dive sa bola. Nakahanap sila ng motivation. It’s a good thing nag-respond sila.”
“I give credit to the players for outworking [Ateneo] and to my coaching staff who gave extra time to them.”
Jollina Go was the only Atenean to score in double-figures with 13 points. The troika of Uy De Ong, Akiko Tomita, and Alyssa Villamor scored nine markers apiece.
The Adamson Lady Falcons (2-2) look to build on this win a it takes on another giant, the DLSU Lady Archers, on Saturday, September 24 at 8:00am. On the other hand, the Ateneo Lady Eagles (1-2) face the FEU Lady Tamaraws on Wednesday, September 21 at 8:00am. Both games will be played at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
The Scores:
ADU (74) – Pingol 16, Lacson 15, Alcoy 12, Osano 9, Camacho 7, Dampios 4, Razalo 4, Rosario 3, Cabug 2, Cacho 2, Araja 0, Tacitac 0, Aciro 0, Gaite 0, Loretero 0.
ADMU (62) – Go 13, Tomita 9, Uy De Ong 9, Villamor 9, Yam 8, Guytingco 6, Newsome 4, Cancio 2, Deacon 2, Payac 0, Veloso 0, Moslares 0.
Quarterscores: 11-15, 34-31, 51-49, 74-62.
