UST, De La Salle bring rivalry to PCCL caging

MANILA, Philippines—University of Santo Tomas hopes to bring its surprisingly solid run in the UAAP to the Sweet 16 of the Philippine Collegiate Champions League Monday against a resurgent La Salle squad at the FilOil-Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The Tigers, semifinalists in the last UAAP season, take the floor at 4 p.m. against the Archers who are now being handled by coach Gee Abanilla with multititled PBA mentor Jong Uichico as consultant.

Jose Rizal University, also a Final Four qualifier in the NCAA, clashes with National University in the first of the knockout doubleheader at 2 p.m.

“The format of the tournament is not in our favor because we’re playing a fresh team while we’ve already played three games,” said NU coach Eric Altamirano.

“We’re trying to save our legs, so hopefully we’ll have some more this Monday.”

The Archers and the Bulldogs, who both missed out on the UAAP Final Four this year, took a longer route to reach the stepladder stage of the nationwide tournament.

Both topped the Metro Manila qualifiers, before clinching another victory at the start of the Sweet 16 round over the weekend.

Norbert Torres and Joshua Webb caught fire early and powered the Archers past South Luzon-Bicol regional champion University of Batangas Brahmans, 78-55, in the Sweet 16 opener last Saturday.

The Bulldogs also routed North-Central Luzon titlist University of the Northern Philippines, 96-51, in the other match where Cameroonian Emmanuel Mbe topscored with 23 points.

Abanilla said the Archers are definitely bracing for a tough encounter with the Tigers, who are led by Cameroonian center Karim Abdul and Jeric Teng.

“It will be a good gauge of how far we are right now,” said Abanilla. “As I’ve said, we’ve been together for just 12 days and hopefully we’ll improve some more.”