La Salle puts UP loss behind with thumping of UST

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Reigning MVP Ben Mbala didn’t have the usual smile he usually flashes when talking to practically anyone.

As the La Salle center took his seat in the small stage inside Smart Araneta Coliseum, Mbala exuded a stern and kingly aura.

The Green Archers just took their biggest victory in Season 80 of the UAAP with a 115-86 degrading of University of Santo Tomas to improve to 4-1.

READ: UP stuns La Salle behind Desiderio’s outburst

Mbala said they just wanted to get back to their winning ways after losing to University of the Philippines 98-87 a week ago.

“We were very eager coming from a disappointing loss against UP, we had to find a way to get back and play our game,” said Mbala Saturday. “The last game, we were not able to play one-on-one defense and we didn’t execute our stops. Things went well today and we got some stops.”

La Salle allowed UP to light the scoreboards to the tune of 16 three-pointers, and that seemed to have left a bad collective memory on the Green Archers as they limited the Growling Tigers to just a couple of triples in their bounce back win.

READ: La Salle bounces back, clobbers UST

Mbala, who finished with 29 points, said their defense was the biggest factor against the hapless UST side.

“I feel like we played better defense, we were able to execute our Mayhem defense and we were able to force them into turnovers and that led to easy fastbreak baskets,” said Mbala.

La Salle forced UST to turn the ball over 35 times and this led to 37 points for the Green Archers.

The Green Archers also found open scorers that resulted to 16 uncontested field goals.

“We were also able to pass the ball better,” said Mbala as his team tacked 26 assists. “Overall, we just played better.”