Ateneo de Manila University dominated the paint on both ends of the floor during their 76-69 win over the University of the East on Wednesday.
The Blue Eagles’ biggest advantage came from the free-throw line, where they attempted 34 shots, successfully making 25 of them. The Red Warriors committed 30 fouls.
Ateneo also made it a point to defend smartly on the other end, allowing only 15 fouls, with the University of the East receiving just four free throws.
According to head coach Tab Baldwin, it was all part of the game plan, and his Blue Eagles executed it perfectly.
“In today’s game, we really wanted to go inside and you see, we ended up with 34 free throws,” said Baldwin.
Nigerian big man Joseph Obasa took 12 of those 34 attempts from the charity stripe, successfully making eight of them as he finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.
Obasa also accounted for six of Ateneo’s seven blocks in the game, outperforming University of the East’s Senegalese student-athlete Precious Momowei, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds but also fouled out.
“Joseph’s a good free throw shooter, it’s a good tactic for us where we feel we have an advantage. Precious has had a great start to the season but he’s very young and experienced players are gonna be very very good,” said Baldwin on Obasa’s performamnce
“We felt it was a point of attack for us and we got some benefit there.”
Despite Ateneo returning to .500 at 2-2, Baldwin was still unhappy with some aspects of their performance.
Fortunately, they responded well in the fourth quarter, receiving clutch baskets from Kai Ballungay and Jared Brown to escape from the Red Warriors, who had just come from a come-from-behind win over Far Eastern University.
“I thought our first half we didn’t play good defense and it was individual letdown, the intensity wasn’t there. Third quarter wasn’t much better but the fourth quarter was,” said the American-Kiwi coach.
“We really dug down deep and defended much more intelligently.”
