Blue Eagles Took Off in the Fourth Quarter to Seal Seat in the PCCL Finals

A lot of people thought that the University of Visayas (UV) Green Lancers would bring the fight to the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the Final Four of the Philippine Collegiate Champions' League (PCCL). To give credit to the reigning runner-up of last season's Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (CESAFI), they were able to stick within striking distance for the first three quarters of the game and they were just down by five points entering the fourth quarter.  Then, the Blue Eagles had enough.

Ateneo unleashed a 33-6 fourth-quarter run to finish the job against the Green Lancers as the Blue Eagles got out of the Ynares Sports Arena with a 95-63 victory to book their return trip to the PCCL Finals which will be played today. How good was the blue and white squad in yesterday's fourth quarter?

Defensively, they held the Green Lancers scoreless for the first 4 minutes of the final quarter. And this wasn't the first time Ateneo held an opponent to only single-digit in a quarter. In the PCCL.

Offensively, the Blue Eagles had simply too many weapons at their disposal against a UV team that was led by a 21-point outing from Lassina Coulibaly.

On top of their impressive outburst in the final ten minutes of the game, the Blue Eagles reminded the PCCL why they were able to complete a rare sweep of the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) last year- en route to their third straight championship under Coach Tab Baldwin. In yesterday's game, SJ Belangel proved that he's ready to take the mantle of the next King Eagle as he finished with 20 points, six rebounds, and three steals while making two three-pointers. All of that in 20 minutes. Tyler Tio nailed three of his six attempts from downtown to finish with 16 points off the bench while the ever-efficient Will Navarro added 14 points and seven rebounds. Dwight Ramos started the game and finished with 11 points while Angelo Kouame had nine points, nine rebounds, and blocked seven shots- reminding everyone that he's the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in the UAAP last season.

As a team, the Blue Eagles shot 50% from the field including a dominant 57% shooting from the two-point area. Ateneo also maximized their fastbreak opportunities as they were able to score 27 points on the break while UV could only score a total of nine fastbreak points. 

Considering how they played yesterday and the fact that they will be playing against a team who they've already beaten earlier in the tournament, it seems that we'll witness another dominant game from the Tab Baldwin-coached squad. Then again, the team Ateneo is facing later is coming off a hard-fought victory against another UAAP powerhouse team and that team did it without the presence of a foreign athlete student. 

Then again, Ateneo already that team so it's only a matter of duplicating what they did against their opponent later.

Photo is from the Facebook page of the PCCL