La Salle eliminates FEU to enter UAAP finals

MANILA, Philippines — La Salle showed the door to Far Eastern University with a 71-68 triumph and seized the first finals berth in the UAAP season 76 men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Green Archers, riding on a nine-game winning streak dating back to the start of the second round, return to the finals after five seasons as they swept the Tamaraws in a virtual best-of-three.

The league’s hottest team nearly got stopped on its tracks, but La Salle weathered FEU’s superb third quarter and engaged in a dog fight in the payoff period.

“There was one stretch in the game when [FEU] was up by nine, I just told them to focus on what we’re good at,” said head coach Juno Sauler.

The results were instant.

The Tamaraws’ 56-47 lead with a minute to go before the turn of the third was slashed down to four within seconds, thanks to Gryann Mendoza’s fouling out on a technical foul which gave Jeron Teng four attempts from the stripe.

Extra opportunities like that gave the Green Archers life down the stretch as they also pounced on the chance that Carl Cruz, who was playing superbly, fouled out with 4:33 to play.

And when Teng tied the game at 66 on a split with 2:33 left, he even managed to get his own miss and handed them the lead for good.

Teng had 15 points, and so did center Norbert Torres and guard LA Revilla, but the tough forward  also had 10 rebounds and six assists to steer La Salle to a finals stint.

The Tamaraws missed the mark despite sweeping the entire first round as they are doomed by their dismal second round performance.

Cruz led FEU with 16 points, while league MVP Terrence Romeo added 14 but only had two markers in the fourth, which came at the last 5.8 seconds.

RR Garcia and Mendoza, the Tamaraws’ graduating players, had 10 and eight, respectively.