Teng, Mariano’s heroics lead UST past Lyceum in OT

MANILA, Philippines — University of Santo Tomas got the job done in overtime — wiping off another jittery start — and nipped Lyceum, 93-86, Friday in the 2013 Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup at the Arena in San Juan.

Gunner Jeric Teng picked up where he left off in the end game and put the Tigers in safe distance in overtime, and the winless Pirates never recovered.

Teng saved UST’s day with a steal and a game-tying layup to send the game into overtime, after two clutch freebies from Karim Abdul.

After being down by 13 in the third quarter, UST took the lead, 63-62, on a triple by Clark Bautista but only after Aljon Mariano sparked some life into them with a personal 8-0 blast.

But UST was nowhere near out of the woods just yet as Lyceum took a 75-71 lead with under a minute to play with freethrows by Shane Ko.

UST then clamped down on defense and forced the error-prone Lyceum to commit more miscues.

“Sa mga last minutes ng game, parang mas experienced kami dun kasi last UAAP puro ganun games namin kaya medyo alam na namin gagawin (We were in such situations before like in UAAP so we already knew what to do),” said Mariano, who sizzled with 31 points along with eight rebounds.

“Hinigpitan lang namin ang depensa namin sa huli (We clamped down on defense in the end) ,” he added.

Teng, who added 27 big points and six rebounds, meanwhjile, bounced back from lackadaisical performance in his past few games for UST.

“Past few games kasi masama laro ko. Nakarecover na kami from D-League. So ngayon may extra kami (I’ve had bad games in the last few weeks. We recovered from D-League so we had extra now),” Teng said.

UST improved to 4-3 in Group B, while Lyceum remained winless after six games as it failed to capitalize on another strong start.

It was like a repeat of their last Wednesday’s 72-82 setback to University of the East, where the Pirates also had a big lead but blew it late in the game.

Guards took over for Lyceum, which was doomed by its 25 turnovers, with Dexter Zamora finishing with 21 points, Ko with 19.