MANILA, Philippines — Defending champion De La Salle trounced Adamson, 67-48, to chalk up its third straight win in the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball tournament Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Green Archers, who went above the .500 mark in the standings for the first time this season at 3-2, broke loose in the second half after being dragged into a low-scoring first two quarters by the Falcons.
“We should’ve played with more energy in the first half,” said DLSU coach Juno Sauler of his team’s performance.
Sophomore Kib Montalbo tallied a career-high 18 points, one point shy of matching his total scoring output last year, on nine-of-12 shooting from the field to lead La Salle.
“I need to step up as much as possible to help the team win,” said Montalbo, who has been starting at the point guard spot after starter Thomas Torres went down with a foot injury. He also collected five rebounds and four assists.
Rookie Prince Rivero played a significant role for the second straight time after his inspired performance in a thrilling win over University of the East last Sunday. Rivero, the former NCAA juniors MVP, had 12 points and six rebounds for La Salle.
The Archers missed the services of their big men Arnold Van Opstal (achilles) and Norbert Torres (ankle).
“Arnold has been playing hurt even before the start of the season and we thought that he could work through it apparently the advice of the doctor was to get a one-week rest. Norbert sprained his ankle in the final minutes against UE and then it got sore a little bit,” said Sauler. “They’re day-to-day.”
La Salle got a boost from its second unit led by Rivero as the starting five struggled to get the Archers going at the offensive end.
Jeron Teng and Jason Perkins combined for just four points on one-of-13 shooting from the field.
“I saw the lack of energy from the first group which I saw with the guys coming off the bench with Prince, Julian and Robert and even Yutien with the eight minutes that he played, I thought showed a lot of intensity and energy on both ends of the floor,” Sauler pointed out.
It was a tale of two halves for La Salle, which scored only 23 points in the first half before putting up 22 points each in the third and fourth quarter to pull away from Adamson.
Adamson, which is coming off a record-setting performance in a 25-62 blowout loss to National University last Wednesday, fell to 0-5.
Jansen Rios had 11 points and seven rebounds but committed six turnovers for the Falcons.
