Quick Fire: Ateneo Blue Eagles take their team and beat the NU Bulldogs with second half rally

(Photo Credit: Zach B. Garcia, The GUIDON)

Ateneo Blue Eagles def. NU Bulldogs 85-72

Notable Players:

Thirdy Ravena, Ateneo (15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks): Best. Local. Player. In. The. UAAP. When it mattered, Thirdy turned it up and he did not look back. He still has work to do though (we'll talk about that more below).

Gian Mamuyac, Ateneo (8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, a lot of great defense): I'll let this  feature do the talking. 

JJay Alejandro, NU (22 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists): He was hot in the first half, but he lost steam come the latter parts of the game. You can't fault the guy, he tried and he received barely any help from his teammates.

Quick Analysis:

- Credit to NU for taking away Ateneo's dribble hand-off action which game the Blue Eagles difficulty in finding open looks during the first half. At the same time, JJay Alejandro's aggressive play offensively was key in NU giving Ateneo trouble.

- Other than Ateneo finding its stride by running a lot of post action and dribble drive action, NU also failed to find any offensive output outside of JJay Alejandro. Alejandro puts up some great statistics, but it's a little bit inflated because of the lack of help he's getting. Make no mistake about it; JJay Alejandro is a top five player in this league. But if NU wants to make a comeback for a Final Four slot, he needs some help and fast.

- Slowly but surely, Ateneo is being exposed and this is a good thing for the unbeaten Blue Eagles. The Bulldogs gave them all they could handle, and Ateneo managed to battle back by showing they're more than just a team that relies a lot on dribble hand-offs in the perimeter.

- With that, Ateneo is still lacking that go-to scorer who can save them with everything isn't falling. This could have been a game where nothing is falling for Ateneo, but they eventually found their stride come the second half. Thirdy was aggressive, yes, but he still doesn't look too comfortable taking over with the ball in his hands. They're unbeaten, but it continues to be a work in progress for these Blue Eagles.