Ken Koo | FCF
Jeron Teng, once a highly-touted scorer, is suffering perhaps his worst scoring slump of his career.
In UAAP Season 76’s second Ateneo-La Salle showdown, he ended up with only eight points. Including the game winner.
His shot, a short floater against Christopher Newsome, lifted De La Salle University to its second blanking of its traditional archrival Ateneo de Manila University, 66-64, in pulsating UAAP men’s basketball action before a jampacked Smart-Araneta Coliseum crowd of 16,353.
Coach Juno Sauler explained after the game that the last play was meant for Teng. “I told him to make a good decision to just handle the ball well, and if there’s a good shot, take it, but if there’s no room, then pass it to an open team mate.”
“It’s how Ateneo played us, they want us to play one-on-one and we gave them that,” he continued.
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The game started with Ateneo surging ahead and leading by as much as nine, 25-16, in the second quarter through the shooting of Nico Elorde, who scored ten points in the first half.
La Salle slowly crept within two through excellent free throw by power forward Jason Perkins and a buzzer beating trey by Almond Vosotros to end the half trailing, 31-33.
But Vosotros’ trey was just a start of a scoring surge. He scored seven points in the third quarter but Nico Elorde and Chris Newsome countered his hot shooting with timely shots as the Blue Eagles maintained control, 49-46, to end the quarter.
Vosotros then resurged in the final quarter, scoring seven unanswered points after a Ravena trey to erect a 12-3 run for a 60-55 lead. He led the Archers with 19 points and six rebounds.
Unfazed, Blue Eagle point guard Juami Tiongson answered with two baskets — a fastbreak layup and a turnaround jumper to come within two, 59-61, coming to the final minute. He led Ateneo in scoring with 14 points.
Disaster struck Ateneo though, when head coach Bo Perasol was charged for a technical foul after furiously complaining about a non-call, when Perkins apparently elbowed Ateneo star Kiefer Ravena in a loose ball play. Vosotros sank two technical free throws to bring their lead back to two possession, 63-59.
Ateneo power forward Ryan Buenafe then cooly swished an open three pointer, followed by a double pump drive by Ravena after a Teng free throw split to tie the game at 64.
With 14.5 seconds left and after a timeout, Teng received the inbound pass and dribble away five seconds and drove right from top of the key against Newsome. He then pivoted to his right and jumped high enough to sink an eight-foot floater for the win.
Following their first elimination round series sweep of their archrivals from Katipunan for the first time since 2001, excluding the forfeited matchups during their 2003 to 2005 campaigns, the Archers are now at solo third place and half-a-game behind second placed Far Eastern University with a 7-4 record.
The Blue Eagles meanwhile had their five-game win streak stopped. They drop at 6-5 for a tie for fourth place with University of Santo Tomas, who earlier survived a tough double overtime victory over then league-leaders Far Eastern University.
