UAAP Season 79 Juniors Basketball Day 1 Round Up

SJ Belangel has established himself as one of the favorites for MVP.
(Photo Credit: Joji Lapuz, Fabilioh)

Results:

Ateneo Blue Eaglets def. UST Tiger Cubs 79-73

FEU Baby Tamaraws def. DLSZ Junior Archers 66 - 56

AdU Baby Falcons def. UPIS Junior Maroons 82-59

NU Bullpups def. UE Junior Warriors 104-54

Notable Performances:

SJ Belangel (ADMU): 20 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals

Kenji Roman (FEU): 8 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists

Inand Fornillos (UST): 16 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists

Juan Gomez de Liano (UPIS): 18 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists

Carl Tamayo (AdU): 14 points, 11 rebounds

John Lloyd Clemente: 21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists

Key Storylines

The dominance of the Adamson Baby Falcons

When I had ranked the Baby Falcons as my #1 team for the upcoming UAAP season, a number of pundits were surprised. After all, they didn't have any notable blue-chip names in the level of SJ Belangel and Juan GDL. Against Juan and the rest of the UPIS Junior Maroons, the Baby Falcons showed just how good they were of a team.

Against the Junior Maroons, Adamson led by as much as 30 points. Mind you, UPIS is led by arguably the best player in the league today in Juan Gomez de Liano, yet somehow, Adamson still managed to win by a huge margin. Consider this game as an introduction of sorts by the Baby Falcons. They're ready to take the league by storm, with a title in their mind.

The revelation of the UST Tiger Cubs and Inand Fornillos

I placed the UST Tiger Cubs under the "Hoping to Surprise" tier. Surprise they did, giving the talented (albeit young) Ateneo Blue Eaglets all they could handle for their first game of the season. At the forefront of UST's rise was Inand Fornillos.

Even before the game, Coach Joe Silva already expected Fornillos to contribute given his team's general lack of experience. Inand certainly contributed, dominating the interior with multiple second chance opportunities, and blocking the shots of the taller Blue Eaglet bigs.

The Tiger Cubs may have been overlooked before the season, but expect teams to take note of them now after how they gave Ateneo a challenge to start off the season.

Next Schedule of Games:

November 15, 2016 Tuesday (All at the San Juan Arena):

9:00 AM: DLSZ vs. UPIS

11:00 AM: AdU vs. FEU

1:00 PM: UE vs. UST

3:00 PM: ADMU vs. NU

Comments

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