By the Numbers: June 29-30

By Paolo Mariano Posted Jul 1st 2013

Season 76 officially went underway with opening weekend now in the books. All the eight teams already saw action with Far Eastern University (FEU), University of Santo Tomas (UST), host Adamson University, and National University (NU) all writing a big check on their first assignments. But while the final score ultimately determines who the winning team is, there are still other statistics or numbers that contribute to the game’s outcome or the league in general. So like in the past seasons, we’ll be featuring five interesting figures every week.

53

The number of rebounds grabbed by Adamson in its win over UP yesterday. The Soaring Falcons had the most boards among the eight teams during opening weekend. They simply manhandled the hapless Fighting Maroons, who only finished with 29, the least among all the squads. Rookie import Ingrid Sewa led the way for Adamson with 10 caroms, six coming from the offensive end. Six others finished with at least three boards apiece. 

43

The number of turnovers committed by UST and La Salle in their game last Saturday. Maybe it was opening day jitters, but it was an ugly game between the Growling Tigers and the Green Archers. The former had 19, while the latter tallied 24. Jeron Teng and Karim Abdul were the biggest offenders with seven and six, respectively. Both teams also didn’t capitalize on the miscues, with UST only having eight TO points and La Salle with 10.

38

The number of rookies this season. UP has the most greenhorns with seven, followed by Ateneo with six and Adamson, FEU, and UE with five each. This year’s batch isn’t as highly celebrated as the previous ones, but there are still big names like imports Chris Newsome, Jason Perkins, and Alfred Aroga, and high school stars like J-Jay Alejandro (Malayan HS), Axel Iñigo (San Beda), Kyles Lao (Xavier), and Kib Montalbo (St. John’s in Bacolod).

12

The number of assists FEU’s Terrence Romeo had in their win over UE last Saturday—his career high. The former Rookie of the Year, at least in their opening game, stayed true to his promise of being more of a playmaker this season. The fourth year guard, primarily known as a scorer since his high school days, topped his previous best of eight dimes, which he has done thrice. He almost finished with a triple-double with 23 points and nine rebounds.
   
8

The number of minutes played by Ateneo’s Kiefer Ravena in their loss to NU yesterday. What was supposed to be a thrilling match-up between him and Ray Parks didn’t materialize as the “Blue Mamba” was hobbled by a sprained right ankle. He finished with only two points and two turnovers. In fact, it was the least number of playing time Ravena had in his career, beating the 14 minutes he had during his Seniors debut against Adamson in 2011.