La Salle’s Justine Baltazar (No. 19) helped put out a lot of UST rallies in the second half. FEU’s Xyrus Torres waxes hot with 26 points, eight triples. —photos courtesy of UAAP MEDIA
The stands echoed with cheers as fans finally returned to the UAAP, albeit not in the usual droves, more than two years after they packed this very same Mall of Asia Arena in the last game of a championship series.
Ateneo won that title, riding an undefeated run that is still live. And the two teams penciled as the biggest threats to the Eagles’ reign came through with validation wins on Tuesday.
But both are aware they have a lot of ground to cover before they can be labeled serious title contenders.
“A win is a win,” said University of the Philippines (UP) coach Goldwyn Monteverde. “But obviously we have a lot to work on with our defense.”
The remarks came after the Maroons struggled past upset-conscious Adamson, 73-71, to become the second hottest team in the league—UP notched its fourth straight triumph.
Later in the day, La Salle used a strong start and a systematic approach to putting out fires and brought University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) young hotshots back to earth with a 75-66 victory.
Eagles triumph
Archers coach Derrick Pumaren was a bit more satisfied with his team’s result than Monteverde was because of context: La Salle was coming off a loss where he said his team “just gave up.”
That loss was to Ateneo (74-57) and is currently the only blot in La Salle’s record after five games thus far. UP is also at 4-1, losing its opening game against the defending champions Eagles, too.
Ateneo continues leading the pack after notching its fifth straight win, after dominating National University, 74-64.
The Blue Eagles, who haven’t lost since October in 2018, are now riding a 31-game winning streak in their hunt for a fourth straight crown.
Ange Kouame nearly posted a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks and added two steals as he anchored Ateneo’s defense. Comebacking Dave Ildefonso topscored for the Eagles with 14 points and three assists
Tied at second, UP and La Salle split ways on Thursday and Monteverde knows the performance that was passable against the Falcons will be wanting against the talent-rich Archers.
Zav Lucero, Maodo Diouf and Ricci Rivero hit big shots down the stretch but UP had to buck a last-gasp scare to hold off Adamson (1-4).
Diouf had a hybrid three-point play—he split his charities, got the rebound off his back-end miss and cut a quick path to the basket for a layup—to give UP a much-needed 68-62 breather going into the final three minutes. Lucero hit a layup while Rivero canned a big triple as UP stretched the lead to seven.
But the Falcons dug up one last fight as Ahmad Hanapi uncorked a three and Joshua Yerro drove hard to make it 73-71 with 31.4 seconds remaining.
The Falcons then tightened up their defense, siphoning the ball to the corner where Rivero missed a triple that gave Adamson one last shot at the victory.
Reality check
But Jerom Lastimosa, whose offense and playmaking sustained the upset-seeking Falcons for most of the game, rushed a three-pointer the completely missed the rim as time expired.
“I think in our next game we need to really look at our defense,” Monteverde said. “We cannot go into Thursday with the same defensive intensity we showed [against UP].”
La Salle, after all, is coming off a win where it subjected UST (2-3) with a harsh reality check using a flexible offense.
Justine Baltazar and Emman Galman fired the perimeter-hitting Archers in the first half, helping their team to a 17-point lead there before entering the break with a 42-27 cushion.
Joshua Fontanilla, who finished with 20 points, sparked the Tigers at the start of the third as UST came to within 47-38. But La Salle’s Kurt Lojera attacked the rim and scored six straight points to hike the lead back to 15.
Baltazar finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead La Salle while Lojera added 15 points and three steals. Galman wound up with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
Nic Habanero also had 20 points and 10 rebounds for UST, which came into the game on back-to-back wins.
“I think this win was very important for us,” said Pumaren. In another match, Xyrus Torres made eight of his 15 attempts from beyond the arc and finished with 26 points as Far Eastern University halted a three-game slide and whipped University of the East, 88-74. INQ
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