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MANILA, Philippines — University of Santo Tomas overhauled a fourth-quarter deficit and escaped with a 76-75 victory over Emilio Aguinaldo College on Friday in the 2013 Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup.
The Tigers erased the Generals’ seven-point advantage, 54-61, early in the payoff period with a stinging 17-2 blast and flipped the lead to their favor, 71-63.
Head coach Pido Jarencio commended his players’ relentlesness as UST completed another comeback victory in the pre-season tournament.
“The positive thing here is our players never give up. They just keep on fighting and playing until we got the lead,” said Jarencio in Filipino.
Jeric Teng exploded for 27 points, including four points in the pivotal run, but failed to provide the safety net for the Tigers as he misfired on two freebies with 2.7 seconds left.
That was after the Generals refused to just go down without a fight and pulled to within a point, 75-76, on a triple by Igee King with three ticks left.
EAC even had a chance to tie the game before that when Jan Jamon canned three free throws to put them within 72-74, but John Tayongton bungled the crucial layup.
It was a good thing the time ran out on the Generals after Teng’s miss and the Tigers officially entered the quarterfinals with a 5-3 card.
Aljon Mariano added 16 points and nine rebounds while Kim Lo had 10 and six for UST, which barely got anything from Cameroonian center Karim Abdul, who only had five markers.
The Tigers face defending champion National University in the playoffs and Jarencio admitted, “we’re the disadvantaged team in that match-up.”
The Generals, meanwhile, concluded the tournament with a 2-6 card which is good for the third to the bottom in group B.