UAAP king Ateneo whips NCAA champ Letran, sweeps PCCL group

In a battle of two of the country’s top collegiate squads, UAAP kingpin Ateneo stamped its class over NCAA counterpart Letran, 79-61, in the 2019 PCCL: UAAP-NCAA Challenge, Saturday at the Filoil Flying Centre.

It was another dominant outing for the Blue Eagles, who swept the tournament, beginning with an 83-69 win over San Beda followed by an 82-71 win over UST.

This time around, Ateneo utilized a huge third quarter surge to blow out Letran.

Knotted at 35-all, the Blue Eagles unleashed a 20-0 burst powered by Dwight Ramos and Troy Mallillin. Letran’s sole bucket in the quarter came courtesy of Christian Fajarito with 2:14 left in the frame.

“We just talked about [how] we didn’t have a good start, we didn’t do a great job early on. Dwight alone had five turnovers. Those things, it’s not gonna lead to success. So we had to tighten up a lot of variables and we did that,” said Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin.

Ateneo would lead by as much as 31 points, 71-40, with 7:19 left in the game.

Ramos and Mallillin led Ateneo with 16 markers each, while combining for 13 boards.

SJ Belangel, who averaged 25.5 points prior to this game, was limited to just 10 points in just 13 minutes of game time.

“Players playing consistently and the team doing things we believe will lead us to success,” added Baldwin.

On the other hand, Pao Javillonar and Fajarito were the sole bright spots of Letran. The former finished with a team-high 15 points to go along with seven rebounds, while the latter added 10 markers.

Letran went winless in the competition.

Ateneo will next face the winner of the PCCL Escandor Cup on March 7 at Ynares Pasig.

The Scores:

ADMU 79 — D. Ramos 16, Mallillin 16, Belangel 10, Credo 8, Daves 6, Fornilos 6, Kouame 5, Tio 5, Navarro 4, Mamuyac 2, E. Ramos 1, Chiu 0, P. Maagdenberg 0, Berjay 0, E. Maagdenberg 0.

CSJL 61 — Javillonar 15, Fajarito 10, Yu 9, Brutas 6, Mina 5, Pambid 5, Guarino 5, Rocacurva 4, Reyson 2, Ambohot 0, Banez 0.

Quarterscores: 11-16, 35-35, 65-39, 79-61.