La Salle rookie Prince Rivero (19) gives his team a lift with eight points, all in the fourth quarter, and five rebounds in a 60-58 squeaker over University of the East Sunday. Mark Giongco
MANILA, Philippines — Defending champion De La Salle rallied to slip past University of the East, 60-58, Sunday in the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Jeron Teng scored seven of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, where the Green Archers battled back from 10 points down to level their win-loss record at 2-2 and deal the Red Warriors their first loss in three games.
“We’re lucky to pull this through with 36 turnovers,” said DLSU head coach Juno Sauler.
Rookie Prince Rivero also came up big in the final frame firing all of his eight points, including a basket near the rim off the setup job by Teng that made it, 60-56, with 44.1 seconds remaining.
“We needed Prince because Arnold (Van Opstal) and Jason (Perkins) fouled out,” Sauler said.
Rivero, a high school MVP with La Salle in the NCAA, also grabbed five rebounds and had a block in just 14 minutes of action to fill in for Jason Perkins and Arnold Van Opstal, who both fouled out in the final five minutes and 53 seconds.
“Just probably intuition. Prince has been playing the three spot for us but we decided to try him out at the four,” Sauler explained why he fielded Rivero in.
Roi Sumang spearheaded the Red Warriors’ surge with 16 points but his potential game-tying attempt from the right baseline fell short as time ran out.
A step quicker, UE disrupted La Salle’s offense with its pressure defense that resulted to the Archers, minus starting point guard Thomas Torres for the second straight time due to a fractured right foot, committing 36 errors.
Van Opstal knotted the count for the first time since La Salle trailed, 36-46, to start the fourth quarter at 51-all with a layup past Charles Mammie with 4:08 remaining.
But Mammie got right back and drew Van Opstal’s last foul before hitting two free throws to give the lead back to the Red Warriors, 53-51, before Rivero completed a three-point play that put the Archers ahead for good, 56-54, with 2:13 left.
“They (my players) defended well in the fourth. That was big. Being able to give up just 12 points in the fourth quarter,” Sauler pointed out.
Mammie had eight points and eight rebounds but turned the ball over seven times before also fouling out late in the game.
Moustapha Arafat, UE’s other import, also had to sit the remainder of the game after committing his fifth and final foul with still 6:09 to go.
Norbert Torres notched a double-double for La Salle with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
La Salle’s guards had trouble with the ball amid UE’s suffocating defense. Almond Vosotros had 12 points on a bulk of attempts but had nine turnovers.
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