Eagles soar higher than Falcons 78-59

The Blue Eagles, ready to win it all

“Ateneo on the fastbreak and the Blue Eagles score on a pass to…to…Rabah Al-Husaini???” How often does one see a 6-7 Center run the floor and become the recipient of the fastbreak play? The Ateneo Blue Eagles has just showed that as their Fil-Kuwaiti Center Rabah Al-Husaini ran the floor like a gazelle and was the recipient of a lot of fastbreak passes. Al-Husaini, running second in the MVP race, scored 29 points, pulled down 6 rebounds, issued 2 assists and had 2 blocks as he led the Ateneo Blue Eagles to a 78-59 over the Adamson Soaring Falcons to add on to the winning streak against this team to 23 games.

Rabah scores 29 pts, pulls down 6 rebounds and has 2 blocks

The first quarter is basically the story of the game as Rabah Al-Husaini stamped his height and might rightaway. Jai Reyes drives to the hoop and passes the ball to Rabah, the big guy scores and gets fouled- he sinks the bonus for a 3-0 count. Dejavu, Jai passed the ball to Rabah again and he scores. Then the next play Ryan passes the ball to Rabah who drives to the hoop, scores and then gets fouled again- Rabah sinks the bonus 8 – 0. To cap it all up Rabah scores on a jumper as Ateneo opened the quarter with a 10-3 lead thanks to the Al-Husaini scoring tutorial. The game plan was that Rabah was suppose to score the first 78 point, but unfortunately he got tired. Rabah scored 14 first quarter points as Ateneo led 22-11 after one quarter of action.

Nonoy scores

Inconsistencies marred the play of the Falcons as they buckled in some stretches with the Eagles going to Eric Salamat and Jai Reyes who scored 5 and 4 points respectively while the rest of the team added 10 points on different set of plays. The Falcons just matched the scoring of the Eagles and was not organized on defense and relied more on some steals by Jeric Canada and the nearest they got was at 6 points 31-37. The only thing nice with what the Falcons were doing was that they had a 9-2 edge on offensive rebounds but unfortunately failed to capitalize on it.

The Falcons started the third quarter with renewed energy as they threatened the Blue Eagles as they cut their lead to just six 39-45 as Jan Colina, Jerick Canada and Paul Gonzalgo showed that they are not about to be shut down. Ateneo calls a timeout and goes back again to their prized center. In the first game between these two teams, Rabah Alhusaini scored only 2 points and in this quarter Rabah scored another 10 points off the passes of Chris and Eric on the fast break. From a six point lead the Eagles shut down the falcons to take a 59-41 lead. Alex Nuyles helped weather the storm as he conspired to a 7-0 wind up to be within striking distance after three quarters as they face a 48-59 deficit.

Nonoy blocks another shot

The Blue Eagles had the luxury to experiment and put in some of its other players with the Blue Eagles led by Mr. Intangible Eric Salamat who sank two three pointers enroute to 10 fourth quarter points and 17 overall. Eric also had a record six steals that went along with his 3 assists and 3 rebounds. The biggest lead of the Eagles came after a three point play by Nonoy Baclao off an offensive rebound from a miss by Rabah that gave the Eagles a commanding 74 – 55 lead with less than four minutes remaining. The Falcons never really recovered or put up much resistance as the defense of the Eagles were complemented by their offense. Eleven Eagles scored with Vince Burke and Mike Baldos being the only ones who did not come up with a basket. For the 23^rd straight time the Eagles flew higher than the falcons.

Chris took only three shots but we still won

Notably missing in the scoring parade was Mike Galinato of the Falcons who was scoreless in this game. Chris Tiu, who scored 29 points against UST and averages almost 15 points per game, took only three field goals and scored only two points from two free throws in the 2^nd quarter. With nine wins and only UE and DLSU standing in their way, the Blue Eagles are poised to get the number seeding for the eliminations, the last time they were in this position was in 2006 with which they entered the finals and lost to the Growling Tigers. Hope springs eternal as we pray for a good wind up of the Blue Eagles in the eliminations.