La Salle’s Josh Torralba pumps his fist after knocking down the go-ahead triple late in the Green Archers’ 80-76 win over the Ateneo Blue Eagles Sunday night. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
La Salle brought down a big, blue one in what has been its version of a hell week.
The Green Archers—playing their third tough opponent in eight days—capped off their first-round run with a huge comeback win over fierce rival Ateneo, 80-76, in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament Sunday at the packed Mall of Asia Arena.
“It’s a big confidence booster going into the second round, we really needed that,” said La Salle rookie Josh Torralba, who knocked in the go-ahead triple from the left corner to make it 77-76, with just 33.9 seconds left.
The Archers were fresh off a 16-point whipping from University of Santo Tomas, 77-61, and looked like headed for another heavy beating after trailing the Eagles by as many as 15 points, 31-16, in the first half.
“I think what got as back in the game was our very good defense,” said La Salle coach Juno Sauler. “Our losses came because we played bad defense and it’s something we’re trying to improve on.”
Jeron Teng came out big again as the King Archer dropped half of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, the last two on buffer free throws, 79-76, with 10.6 ticks left.
La Salle and Ateneo wound up sharing the third spot with 4-3 records.
Adamson also wrapped up the round with its first victory of the season—a 73-68 nipping of the skidding University of the Philippines.
The Falcons unveiled a surprise in Jerome Garcia, the shooting guard who pumped in a career-high 26 points to power the team to leads as big as 19 points, 47-28.
Although the Maroons rallied and even grabbed the lead, 62-61, midway in the fourth period, the Falcons closed out strong with Garcia, Joseph Nalos, Frederick Tungcab and Papi Sarr.
“I told the boys to trust the system and stick to the game plan,” said Adamson coach Mike Fermin.
Hard luck also hit the Maroons, who closed out the round with five straight losses, when promising rookie Jerson Prado sustained a dislocated patella on his right knee during a rebound play in the second quarter.
Thomas Torres and Jason Perkins also came through for the Archers, fuelling an 18-4 run at the start of the third quarter that gave them the advantage, 54-50.
“It’s just really the players putting out their effort on defense,” said Sauler as his Archers made a quick adjustment after the Eagles shot a torrid 51.6 percent from the field in the first half.
Torres finished with 15 points, nine boards and four assists, while Perkins unloaded nine of his 13 points from three-point range. With a report from Jun Veloira
The scores:
First Game
ADAMSON 73—Garcia J. 26, Nalos 15, Tungcab 13, Sarr 8, Polican 5, Ochea 4, Margallo 2, Ng 0, Garcia C. 0, Villanueva 0, Camacho 0.
UP 68—Desiderio 26, Longa 9, Jaboneta 7, Dario 6, Kone 4, Amar 4, Prado 4, Moralde 3, Vito 3, Asilum 2, Harris 0, Lim 0, Manuel 0.
Quarters: 21-14, 47-28, 57-46, 73-68
Second Game
LA SALLE 80—Teng 18, Torres 15, Perkins 13, Rivero 10, Torralba 9, Caracut 6, Tratter 4, Navarro 3, Muyang 2, Sargent 0.
ATENEO 76—Ravena 19, Ikeh 13, Capacio 10, Gotladera 8, Pessumal 8, Tolentino 7, Pingoy 6, Apacible 2, Babilonia 2, Nieto 1, Cani 0.
Quarters: 13-25, 36-46, 61-61, 80-76