MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo went to its small man when its big guy began to sputter in foul trouble and the Eagles soared to their third straight victory with a 93-77 rout of the UST Tigers in a duel of unbeaten teams in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Philsports Arena yesterday.
The 5-6 Eman Monfort, back in the mix after being relegated to the second team last season, came out big with a stirring 20-point output, highlighted by six triples, as he powered the Eagles past the erratic Tigers for the solo lead.
Slowed down by early foul trouble, MVP Rabeh Al-Hussaini, who dropped 18 and 27 points in Ateneo’s victories over Far Eastern U and University of the East, struggled for 13 points and four rebounds.
But Monfort, along with Ryan Buenafe, Nico Salva and rookie Magic Tiongson, stepped up to fill the slack.
“I’m happy he’s back, he’s been giving us a big lift,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black of his 5-6 fourth year guard out of Ateneo de Iloilo.
“I thought the entire bench gave us a big lift today (yesterday). Ryan Buenafe, Eman Monfort, Nico Salva and even Justin Chua for that matter coming off the bench, they really helped our cause in this game,” he said.
Eric Salamat scattered 14 points while Salva, Tiongson and Chua combined for 17 points in dealing the Tigers their first loss after a 2-0 start.
Allen Malixi paced the Tigers with 20 points while Dylan Ababou and Khasim Mirza had 17 and 13 points, respectively. But the Tigers played erratic in the first half, enabling the Eagles to score on transition to build a 52-35 lead at the turn.
“Last year it was a learning experience for me being in the second team for a whole year of training. But I just keep on playing every game, it was a blessing in disguise,” said Monfort.
The Eagles actually made 11 of the 24 triples, forcing the UST defense to spread out but giving the defending champions good looks in the perimeter and down low.
“We’ve done a better job shooting threes this year. We shot about 18 percent on three points last year so we put a lot of emphasis on it last summer. Maybe we overemphasized because of the loss of Chris Tiu that everybody has to step up to be able to hit the outside shots,” said Black.
Earlier, University of the East bucked a slow start with a strong windup as it trounced National U, 73-59, to post its second win in three starts.
Coach Mark Herrera’s Jr. Warriors made it a double victory with a 70-62 lashing of the FEU Baby Tams for their second straight win.
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