Ralph Samson | FCF

De La Salle University draws first blood in their virtual-best of-three series.

The Green and White five, behind the season-high performance from senior guard LA Revilla, grazed past a late-game rally by Far Eastern University to gain one step closer to a UAAP Season 76 men’s basketball finals berth on Saturday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Playing in his final year, the oft-sidelined Revilla finished with 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting from beyond the arc to tow DLSU to a 74-69 victory.

“We just worked on (our game) in the last week, and we were just fortunate that we were making our open shots,” said DLSU head coach Juno Sauler.

The vertically-gifted lineup of De La Salle had a hard time scoring in the lane, and were lucky enough to gain help from outside gunners like Revilla, Thomas Torres, and reserve big Matt Salem. Their outside sniping resulted in an 11-for-32 shooting from beyond the arc for the Taft-based institution.

“FEU was clogging the paint, they were double-teaming our bigs. So, the guards were open in the perimeter with the way they defended us,” added Sauler.

Terrence Romeo, who is set to be named the season’s most valuable player, scored 22 points on 6-for-21 shooting from the field, while backcourt partner RR Garcia added 18 points and eight rebounds off the bench.

“We need to find a way to start stronger next game. Those games we started strong, we ended with good results. Today, we weren’t able to do that,” FEU head coach Nash Racela told Fullcourtfresh.com following the match.

The two squads will meet again on Wednesday, with the streaking Green Archers seeking to make their first finals appearance since 2008.