The young guns of the Lady Eagles continued to shine. This time around, the seniors finally showed up.
Behind the steady shooting of fourth-year guard Alyssa Villamor, the Ateneo de Manila University Lady Eagles escaped with a 68-66 win over last season’s runners-up University of the East Lady Warriors, Wednesday morning at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“I think it was a good combination, putting in Villamor, [Jollina] Go, [Jhazmin] Joson, and [Joanne] Nimes together,” said Lady Eagles head coach John Flores.
The Ateneo quartet knocked down 18 triples for the game to at least negate the size advantage of UE.
Even with a 2-0 slate, Flores knows that there is still a lot of work to be done by his squad.
“It’s not everyday we could hit 18 triples to there’s still a lot of work to be done especially on defense,” he added.
And it was magnified during the final frame.
With the Lady Eagles holding a nine-point advantage with six minutes left, the Lady Warriors were able to storm back to cut the lead down to just a solitary point lead with an 8-0 run — majority of which came from the break.
Villamor was able to stop the bleeding with a clutch triple with 2:39 remaining. Turnovers by the Lady Warriors put themselves in a drought before Christine Cortizano was able to score on a floater to give UE a chance with 37 ticks left.
A split on the stripe by Villamor followed by indecision by the Lady Warriors late closed out the contest in favor of Ateneo.
Villamor finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, and five assists while knocking down five triples. Rookie Nimes had 18 markers as well spiked by six threes. Graduating senior Go had 15 points as well built on five triples.
Steering the ship for the Lady Eagles is sophomore floor general Joson as she tallied nine assists and eight points.
Anna Requiron’s career-game went for naught as he finished with a season-high 31 points to go along with 13 rebounds.
Princess Pedregosa also tallied a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Lady Warriors, who drop to 0-2.
Ateneo will have a 10-day break before taking on defending champions NU Lady Bulldogs on Saturday, September 22 at the SMART Araneta Coliseum. UE, on the other hand, looks to snap out of its funk when it faces the DLSU Lady Archers on Wednesday, September 19 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The Scores:
ADMU 68 – Villamor 18, Nimes 18, Go 15, Joson 8, Buendia 4, Cancio 2, Guytingco 2, Newsome 1, Chu 0, Gino-Gino 0, Payac 0.
UE 66 – Requiron 31, Cortizano 15, P. Pedregosa 13, A. Pedregosa 5, Strachan 2, Borromeo 0, Cuadero 0, Francisco 0, Ganade 0, Ordas 0, Nama 0.
Quarterscores: 19-19, 30-32, 55-52, 68-66.
