Tigers extend win streak vs Maroons

UST Tigers. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines —  University of Santo Tomas kept University of the Philippines at bay for a 79-69 triumph Wednesday in the UAAP season 76 men’s basketball tournament at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Maroons kept just within striking distance all game, but forward Aljon Mariano and guard Clark Bautista took charge down the stretch for the Tigers as they combined for 17 of their 23 payoff period points.

Head coach Pido Jarencio, after coming up short in rotation in their  67-77 setback to Far Eastern University, made sure all of his players got minutes.

“That was my fault [loss to FEU] because I had a very short rotation, my players got tired so I tried to use players and see who could help us,” said Jarencio in Filipino.

But the closest UP got in the game was within a point, six times in the second and third quarters, before UST first widened the lead to double digits, 50-40, with 5:38 in the third.

The Maroons, though, just won’t let the Tigers pull away for good and trimmed the lead down to five three times after that, the last with 2:57 left, 63-68.

But Mariano and Bautista alternated UST’s final buckets to help UST improve to 4-2.

Mariano finished with 18 points, five rebounds off the bench for UST, which still played without skipper Jeric Teng, while three of its starters carried the bulk of the scoring.

Kevin Ferrer added 16 points and 10 boards, Karim Abdul and Bautista added 14 and 12 markers, in that order.

“I was wary that our strategy could back fire, but it’s a good thing that this ended positively for us and the other bench players gave us a boost,” Jarencio said.

The win was the Tigers’ 13th straight over the winless Maroons, which is the current longest streak alive in the league dating back to season 69, according to UAAP stats man Pong Ducanes.

UP dropped its sixth game with just one assignment left in the first round of eliminations.

Sam Marata churned out his usual numbers with 16 points, but on 7-of-18 shooting as the Maroons did relatively well on rebounding, 39-46, despite not having Raul Soyud.

Soyud got an automatic suspension for his second unsportsmanlike foul.