{"id":134301,"date":"2017-11-27T02:01:52","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T07:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=134301"},"modified":"2017-11-27T02:01:52","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T07:01:52","slug":"ateneo-draws-first-blood-in-uaap-finals-vs-la-salle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/27\/ateneo-draws-first-blood-in-uaap-finals-vs-la-salle\/","title":{"rendered":"Ateneo draws first blood in UAAP finals vs La Salle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ateneo<\/a>
Ateneo inched closer to the UAAP men’s basketball title after subduing La Salle, 76-70, in Game 1 of the best-of-three finals at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on Saturday night. (Photo<\/a>: Ateneo Blue Eagles Men’s Basketball Team\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— Ateneo inched closer to the UAAP men’s basketball title after subduing La Salle, 76-70, in Game 1 of the best-of-three finals at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Nieto twins showed heart as the Blue Eagles survived a hot game from Aljun Melecio and take a 1-0 lead in the race-to-two series.<\/p>\n

Ateneo waxed hot in the first quarter, dropping 26 points to take a 12-point lead.<\/p>\n

La Salle, however, slowly crawled back as Melecio helped the team come to within four, 39-43, at halftime as Matt Nieto had to leave the court after getting hit by Ben Mbala.<\/p>\n

The Archers would take the lead late in the third, but a blistering 9-1 run to start the fourth anchored by huge baskets from Mike Nieto put the Eagles ahead, 69-59.<\/p>\n

La Salle still put up a fight, cutting the lead down to one, 71-70, with less than three minutes left, but Ateneo’s defense shut the team down in the end.<\/p>\n

Thirdy Ravena led the Eagles with 12 points, but it was the twin brothers’ points that mattered a lot.<\/p>\n

Matt Nieto showed that he can still be a key player despite the wounded eye as he finished with 11, while Mike’s crucial baskets in the fourth period led him to an 11-point finish as well.<\/p>\n

Melecio finished with 24 markers for the Archers, but he was virtually by his lonesome as Ricci Rivero was limited to only 10 points, while Mbala only scored a UAAP career-low eight.<\/p>\n

Box Scores:<\/p>\n

Ateneo 76\u2013Ravena 12, Ma. Nieto 11, Mi. Nieto 11, Asistio 10, Tolentino 9, Black 7, Verano 5, Go 5, Ikeh 4, Tio 2, Mamuyac 0, Mendoza 0, Porter 0<\/p>\n

La Salle 70\u2013Melecio 24, R. Rivero 10, Mbala 8, Tratter 7, Santillan 7, P. Rivero 7, Baltazar 4, Montalbo 3, Caracut 0, Go 0, Tero 0, Paraiso 0<\/p>\n

Quarterscores: 26-14, 43-39, 60-58, 76-70<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Ateneo inched closer to the UAAP men’s basketball title after subduing La Salle, 76-70, in Game 1 of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":134305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[4254,4255,35553],"class_list":["post-134301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ateneo","tag-la-salle","tag-uaap-finals","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}