Martin San Diego | FCF
For the Green and White faithful, it’s time to party like it’s 1999.
Down 0-1 to start the best-of-three series, De La Salle University completes a sweep of the last two games following a thrilling 71-69 overtime victory over University of Santo Tomas in the series finale on Saturday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
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Led by Finals MVP awardee Jeron Teng, who tallied 26 points with eight rebounds and six assists, the Green Archers brings back the UAAP men’s basketball title back to Taft Avenue in front of 23,396 fans clad in gold and green after six long years.
Like their road to glory, the game did not start off on a good foot for DLSU.
The Tigers threatened to pull away in the second period, limiting the Green Archers to just eight points late in the first half to gain a sizeable 32-24 margin at the break, which eventually grew to its largest at 15 points, 40-25, entering the halfway point of the third period
With head coach Juno Sauler calling a timeout to shake the cobwebs, the engine started to rev for the Green Machine, led by the trio of Jeron Teng, Arnold Van Opstal, and Almond Vosotros, as they mounted a 22-8 run in the final 6:20 to take a momentary lead by the end of the third period.
Eventually, both teams matched each other shot-for-shot in the final canto, with neither team flinching to give out an inch despite exchanging turnovers and missed shots to send the game into an extra five minutes.
With De La Salle just down by one after Jeron Teng’s split at the foul line, Vosotros took a few dribbles inside the arc, buried a long two-pointer to put the Archers ahead for good.
The graduating Vosotros finished with 16 points, while Jason Perkins amassed 13 points and 18 rebounds in the match.
Karim Abdul amounted for 26 points and eight rebound, while Jeric Teng had 24 points and six rebounds for UST in the loss.
Overall, DLSU now has eight men’s basketball titles since joining the league in 1986.
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