FOULEDOUT!

The Ateneo Blue Eagles drew first blood against the rival De La Salle Green Archers in their opening game of the season. Veteran guard Chris Tiu captained the Blue Eagles and led his team for the 79-73 win over the Green Archers. Tiu led the game with 26 points including 17-19 from the free-throw line.

The prized rookie of Ateneo, Ryan Buenafe, scored only 8 points for his new team while Rabeh Al-Hussaini and Eric Salamat each had ten.

Coming off an injury, JV Casio led the Green and White squad with 19 points while Rico Maierhofer contributed 16 points and eight rebounds. James Mangahas chipped in 13 points and rookies Joshua Webb and Hyram Bagatsing added 7 and 4 points respectively.

Head coaches of both teams were slapped with technical fouls due to violation of new UAAP rules. La Salle head coach Franz Pumaren got the technical before the tip-off because he was “not wearing his ID”. Tiu drained the two technical free-throws before the start of the game giving them a 2-0 advantage even before the game started. Ateneo coach Norman Black was assessed with a technical in the third period after “complaining too much”. The UAAP apparently established new rules for the game that the two coaches were not aware of.

ANIMO LA SALLE!

-fouledout

ANIMO!

Japeth Aguilar will be suiting up for the Philippines and compete in Chinese-Taipei for the William Jones Cup. The 6-9 former Ateneo Blue Eagles cager made history when he became the first Filipino to play for an NCAA Division I team. Aguilar is currently playing for Western Kentucky University in the US. A perennial shot-blocker during his days in Ateneo, Aguilar is expected to toughen up the RP squad, especially in the defensive end.

Aguilar was given permission by his Hilltoppers coach Ken MacDonald to go back here in the Philippines to play in Jones Cup. Aguilar only played three games with the Hilltoppers because of a leg injury.

-fouledout