THE REIGNING champions Ateneo Blue Eagles started their preseason off right after they eked past the hard-fighting Letran Knights, 55-51, in the 2012 Filoil Flying V Preseason Hanes Cup yesterday at the Arena in San Juan City.
Cebuano center Greg Slaughter, formerly of the University of the Visayas Green Lancers, came up big on both ends of the floor during crunchtime as he helped tow the Eagles to the win in spite of a horrendous shooting performance.
Slaughter had 14 points and added 15 rebounds and three block shots, the last of which preserved their win in the dying seconds as he denied Jonathan Belorio’s layup attempt.
The Blue Eagles led all game long. At one point, they had a 12-point advantage. But just like they have done so in the NCAA, the Knights did not give up and came storming back to tie the game up at 49-all after a three-pointer by Carlo Lituania.
The Eagles responded with a trey from reigning MVP Kiefer Ravena for a 52-49 lead but Letran came close again as Kevin Racal hit a layup with 3:53 left.
Slaughter padded the lead with two freethrows and later had the block on Belorio, which led to the game-sealing freethrow by Ravena.
Ravena added 12 points while Letran, which played without NCAA Mythical Five members Kevin Alas and Raymund Almazan, was paced by the 15 of Jam Cortes. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio