Fortuna bares teeth as UST Tigers devour UP Maroons

MANILA, Philippines—Where Jeric Fortuna goes, University of Santo Tomas follows.

Fortuna brought fortunes again to lead the Growling Tigers to a 68-49 drubbing of University of the Philippines Sunday in the 74th UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

The five-foot-seven playmaker fired 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help end UST’s three-game tailspin even as it stretched its mastery over UP to nine games.

“I need to be the team’s leader, I need to step up (every game),” said Fortuna. “Coach just told us to stay aggressive and stay confident.”

“I don’t have anything else to say about our leader (Fortuna), he’s really our team’s foundation.” praised UST coach Pido Jarencio, whose squad missed the services of scorer Jeric Teng in the second half due to a sprained ankle.

The Tigers, though, who are now back at the .500 mark with a 3-3 slate, hardly missed a beat with Fortuna leading the way and Melo Afuang busting out of a scoring slump with 13 points on top of five rebounds.

UST led by as much as 19 while UP never really threatened and only came as close as 14 on an Alinko Mbah dunk, 42-56 with under three minutes left.

The Growling Tigers pulled away from an eight-point halftime lead attributed to a blistering third quarter that took the fight out of the Maroons.

UST dominated the rebounding department, 58-33, with Cameroonian recruit Karim Abdul and Chris Camus combining for 26 boards. Both Abdul and Camus chipped in with eight points apiece.

Coming off a stunning upset over Far Eastern University, UP failed to draw enough scoring from its usual gunners as no Fighting Maroon notched double figures.

Anjelo Montecastro’s measly nine points paced UP, which was out-of-sync from downtown with a woeful two-of-25 shooting.

The Fighting Maroons, who only managed five assists, reeled to their fourth defeat in six games.