What happened to UST? NU Bulldogs clamp down on Tigers
NU 59 vs UST 40
On paper, the UST Growling Tigers had a lot going for them, heading into their game against the NU Bulldogs. By all accounts, they had the more talented team and the one with the more experience. You don’t need a time machine to remember that these are the same guys who gave La Salle all they could handle in the Finals just last year. Not to take anything away from the current NU players, but the impact of losing Bobby Ray Parks is like Lionel Messi deciding to leave Argentina for a very important match (Too soon Argentina fans?).
That being said…what happened in yesterday’s game?
The final score of the game was 59-40 in favor of the Bulldogs. Safe to say, this was an extremely low-scoring game. If you do the math, UST averaged just 10 points a quarter. And if you watched the game, you might have actually wondered how on earth they were able to score 40 at all. Their shooting was that bad.
Was it good defense by NU? Or was it just UST missing shots? Honestly, it was more of UST not being themselves. Even though they are loaded with veterans in their lineup, they looked like a couple of freshmen lost on campus on the first day of school.
But give credit to NU. They paid close attention to UST’s interior game of Aljon Mariano and Karim Abdul. Though the two were still the leading scorers (Abdul had 11 while Mariano had 10), they were the lone bright spots against a well-prepared NU defense. They loaded on the side of Abdul, preventing him from getting clean looks. UST settled for mid-range jumpers or long two-pointers, and those shots alone are not going to cut it in the UAAP.
On offense, the Bulldogs were led by Gelo Alolino (13 points) who streaked past the UST defense. Although NU had their own problems shooting the ball, they relied on their defense when their shots weren’t falling. Instead of settling for halfcourt sets, they ran like crazy kids whenever UST had a turnover. They had easy baskets while UST didn’t even have the word “easy” in their heads the entire game.
You can bet in the next game, UST will be back to their normal selves. Maybe it was just first game jitters. Maybe it was just bad luck. In any case, NU did a hell of job in coming up with a win.
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