ADU SOARING FALCONS over UP FIGHTING
MAROONS, 79-67
Sure, Jericho Cruz was the Player of the Game in this one. He was the guy
with the most highlight reel plays.
But get this – his 19 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals weren’t the biggest
numbers in this win over UP.
53-29.
Rebounds.
Adamson.
WOW.
I honestly cannot remember a UAAP game where a team got so grossly
outworked on the glass. It’s crazy.
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| Ingrid Sewa was super solid as the Falcons pummeled the Maroons. |
And the credit? Well, the three guys most deserving are definitely Roider
Cabrera, Rodney Brondial, and newcomer Ingrid Sewa, all of whom combined for 28
rebounds, not to mention 35 points.
Imagine that! Three Falcons nearly equaling the total output of the
Fighting (more like floundering) Maroons!
Yes, we can all temper it by saying they went against UP. Let’s see them
do that against Charles Mammie, Adi Santos, and Chris Javier of UE, or Emmanuel
Mbe, Troy Rosario, and Alfred Aroga of NU.
Why is the sublime opening weekend performance of these Falcons against the
lowly Dilimanians worth talking about?
Because, honestly, they now have the kind of really big, tough, frontline
that they’ve lacked for the better part of the last decade (with the exception
of the Ken Bono years I guess).
As coach Leo Austria put it in the postgame interview, the addition of
Sewa allows Brondial to slide down to his natural PF spot, which he wasn’t able
to do in tandem with similarly-positioned Eric Camson last season. With Brondial’s
combo of length and mobility alongside Sewa’s imposing size, coach Leo Austria
seems to finally have the ultimate complementary pieces to help Jericho Cruz
lead the Falcons back into the Final Four.
The caveat, however, is that there is only one UP team among the lot. All
the other six teams waiting to take a shot at the San Marcelino-based dribblers
will have significantly more size and depth than the Maroons. Still, this
doesn’t mean coach Austria’s revamped inside operators aren’t to be feared.
On the contrary, one of the things that really impressed me with
Adamson’s frontline against UP was how they were able to contain relatively
solid contributors like Raul Soyud and Chris Ball. Both Soyud and Ball had
their shining moments for UP last season and with the departure of so many
mainstays, they were supposed to helm the Diliman quintet in Season 76. Last year,
both those players combined to average nearly 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 3
blocked shots. Against the Falcons, Soyud and Ball were restricted to 14
points, 9 rebounds, and 1 block while shooting just 6-of-15 from the floor.
Adamson’s next foe is going to be championship-contender UST, which also
features a strong frontcourt – Karim Abdul, Paulo Pe, Aljon Mariano, and Kevin
Ferrer as the principal guys. That’s going to be the main acid test to
determine if coach Austria’s Camp Big Falcons are really made of stern stuff.
For the record, the combo of Brondial and Sewa
normed a combined 26.1ppg and 20.1rpg in the 2013 Filoil Flying V Preseason
Premier Cup. I doubt if they will be able to register those numbers in Season
76, but I wouldn’t put it beyond them to do so either.
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| Jericho Cruz was on attack mode all afternoon. |
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| It was a tough start to the campaign for Mikee Reyes and his UP teammates. |
ADU
79- Cruz 19, Sewa 15,
Cabrera 11, Brondial 9, Petilos 8, Julkipli 8, Rios 4, Inigo 3, Agustin 2,
Trollano 0, Ochea 0, Monteclaro 0, Bernabe 0, Abrigo 0
UP
67- Marata 20, Soyud 10,
Asilum 10, Lao 6, Wong 4, Reyes 4, Pascual 4, Ball 4, Gallarza 3, Harris 2,
Paras 0, Ligad 0, Gingerich 0
QS:
18-13, 37-28, 60-49, 79-67
Key
Performances:
Jericho Cruz – 19 points, 6 rebounds, 3
steals
Ingrid Sewa – 15 points, 10 rebounds,
6-8 FG shooting
Sam Marata – 20 points, 5 rebounds, 2
steals, 3 triples
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