The Blue Eagles had another great game yesterday, defeating the UST Growling Tigers 64-57.

This time, the offense was more diversified, with four players scoring in double digits - Rabeh Al-Hussaini (17 pts), Chris Tiu (14 pts), Ryan Buenafe (12 pts) and Jai Reyes (10 pts). Rabeh had his usual monster game in the paint despite having Jervy Cruz and/or UST's other tall, tenacious defenders on him, including a nifty alley-oop pass from Ryan, who in turn resurfaced from a couple of off-games to worm through the Tigers' defense for his usual thrilling layups. Chris was responsible for orchestrating the play that broke the Tigers' backs in the fourth quarter, driving to the hoop and, after the defense closed in on him, kicking out to a wide-open Jai for the three.

The defense was excellent, too. As they did in the post-elimination knockout game against UST last season, Ateneo clogged the interior and forced the Tigers' bigs to gamble on their outside shooting. The Tigers are generally known for their outside shooting, but Jervy Cruz is not, and the Tigers' main man was limited to a season-low 6 points. Although he came away with three fouls and only two points, Nonoy Baclao had four blocks in the game, all at the expense of UST's key players to the delight of the Ateneo gallery. The Eagles also capitalized on the absence of veteran Tigers PG Japs Cuan and choked the inexperienced UST guards, preventing them from orchestrating the Tigers' offense especially in the end game.

As I watched the game last night, though, I could not help thinking that Ateneo's bench still has a ways to go before they can be considered legimitate shock troopers. The non-starters are definitely talented and contribute on an individual-effort basis, but as a unit they're not doing their job as effectively as expected - when the starters sit down, the offense tends to suffer and the opponents are able to catch up or even pull ahead, which means the defense is not as it should be either :-/ I hope they improve once Eric Salamat (usually the sixth man in the rotation) recovers from his sore jaw and everyone else, especially the rookies, becomes more and more used to playing together as a team.

Of the seventh men down, Bacon Austria, Niko Salva and Mike "Batas" Baldos are emerging as the best of the second unit. Bacon is a reliable tall ballhandler (important for countering the "vaunted" La Salle press) with a developing outside shot - exactly what Kirk Long was expected to become - as well as a wide, sufficiently agile defender. Niko needs to kick up his defense some more, but his slashing drives to the basket earn him a modest point production in every game. I believe Batas is the principal substitute for Nonoy, and for good reason, too - while he isn't the blocking monster that Nonoy is, he is a tenacious defender who stays all over his man like ugly on an ape, an appropriate simile considering the looks of some of the opposing players :-p

SIDESHOWS: In yesterday's undercard, the NU Bulldogs nabbed their first win of the season at the expense of the FEU Tamaraws, 69-61. Most of the Ateneo gallery was already in place by the fourth quarter and the blue side cheered heartily when the Bulldogs pulled ahead and eventually won the game. I heard this piqued the FEU fans quite a bit. I'm not going as far as to say that they deserved it, but after Ateneo lost to them last Thursday (complete with that unnecessary last-second dunk by Reil Cervantes), how did they expect us to act?