MANILA, Philippines—In a blink of an eye, Adamson University turned a close contest to a 76-57 romp of University of the East to boost its bid for a twice-to-beat incentive Thursday in the 74th UAAP seniors basketball tournament.
The Falcons, inching two games closer to bonus with the victory, shifted gear late in the third period before completely running over the Warriors in the fourth as they turned to the lanky hot-shooting duo of Eric Camson and Alex Nuyles.
Nuyles, the multifaceted guard, cracked the game wide open after a 38-all stalemate as he poured down eight points in the crippling 13-2 to run to conclude the third.
Camson, along with another marksman in Roider Cabrera, picked up where Nuyles left off and scored a combined 13 markers in the payoff period where Adamson, which propped up its record to 9-3, cruised to as big as a 26-point cushion.
“We committed a lot of turnovers and we didn’t stick to our play in the first half,” said coach Leo Austria, whose squad, despite a one and half lead over third-running Far Eastern University, is still not a sure lock at second with still two to three games left.
“We improved our shooting percentage in the second half. The overconfidence of the players is there, and we’re hoping to change that attitude coming into the playoffs,” Austria added.
The Falcons, though, shook off a flimsy first half shooting and would not miss in the fourth quarter with Cabrera sinking a trey followed by alternating perimeter jumpers by Camson, Cabrera and Nuyles.
Camson matched his career high in rebounds with 15 as he clocked in 20 points while Nuyles added 17 and senior playmaker Alex Alvarez with 10.
The Red Warriors, whose campaign for the semifinals ended last week, only managed to keep up with the Falcons until the third quarter where they even tasted a slim lead on freebies by Lucas Tagarda, 32-29, and again on back-to-back jumpers by John Noble, 37-36.
But Adamson’s sheer firepower—even highlighted by a thunderous slam by Nuyles set up by Alvarez with 2:12 left—was just too much to handle for UE, which slid down to 2-10 and last place in the standings.
Paul Zamar, UE’s best player who is on his last year with the squad, scored 17, seven of which coming from garbage points.