Ateneo’s timely surge proved too lethal for the struggling University of Santo Tomas after coming away with a dominant 97-77 win in the first round of the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. 

The Blue Eagles pulled away for good in the closing period to bounce back and improved 3-3 in the standings. 

Koon topscored for the Blue Eagles with an all-around brilliance of 21 points, six rebounds and five assists, while Kai Ballungay and Joseph Obasa contributed 17 points apiece. 

Rookie star Mason Amos, for his part, had an impressive 15-point finish in the balanced effort. 

The Blue Eagles were barely hanging tough against the Growling Tigers’ determined fightback, 62-58, in the third quarter. 

However, Ateneo finally found its scoring touch and zoomed to its biggest lead of the match, 94-73, on Amos’ back-to-back baskets with 1:31 remaining. 

From then on, the game was as good as done despite UST’s last-minute efforts.  

“Just briefly I thought on both ends of the floor, we gave, more or less, a good performance. Held the tough UST team. I know the record doesn’t flatter them, but you know how tough they are. Still too many turnovers on our part and we need to do better than that. Generally speaking, it was a good game and we need that kind of performance going into the UP game. We have a very, very happy dug out [right now],” Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin said. 

Nic Cabanero and Christian Manaytay paced UST anew with 21 and 17 points, respectively. 

The Growling Tigers sank 0-6 in the standings and absorbed their longest losing streak of 19 games in a row owing it from last season. 

The scores:

Ateneo (97) – Koon 21, Ballungay 17, Obasa 17, Amos 15, Espinosa 6, Chiu 6, Gomez 5, Brown 3, Celis 3, Lazaro 2, Credo 2, Quitevis 0, Bongo 0, Tuano 0, Nieto 0, Gamber 0.

UST (77) – Cabañero 21, Manaytay 17, Pangilinan 11, Crisostomo 8, Duremdes 7, Laure 5, Manalang 5, Calum 3, Moore 0, Lazarte 0, Llemit 0, Gesalem 0.

Quarterscores: 17-10, 40-33, 72-61, 97-77