De La Salle University may have stumbled thirty-six times, but at the end of the game, the defending champs stood up winning.
Led by mainman Jeron Teng and his newfound sidekick Prince Rivero, the Green Archers did another escape act by thumping season host University of the East (UE’s) Red Warriors, 60-58, in UAAP men’s basketball action at the Mall of Asia Arena today.
Teng led his team with 18 points, four assists, and two blocks while last season’s juniors most valuable player Rivero chipped in eight points, seven of which were scored in the fourth quarter.
The duo conspired for the winning play with 44 seconds left in the game, with the cutting Rivero sinking an easy lay-up off a bullet pass from Teng.
“I just tried to create plays in the end. Most likely, we have to share the ball given UE’s defense so there, I found the open man,” Teng said regarding the play.
La Salle, playing shell shocked and trailing by as much as ten points in the third quarter because of UE’s vaunted full court press, managed to level things up in the fourth quarter through inside stabs from Rivero, Arnold Van Opstal, and Norbert Torres.
Things turned interesting for the two squads when their big men fouled out in the quarter—Van Opstal and Jason Perkins for La Salle, and Charles Mammie and Moustapha Arafat for UE.
It was small ball in the last two minutes as Rivero converted a reverse lay-up from a bullet pass from Teng for the go-ahead basket, 56-54.
Teng then swished a one-on-one floater to extend the lead by four but UE’s main man Roi Sumang answered with a quick floater to inch closer at 56-58.
Rivero sank what have been the winning lay-up off a Teng pass but Sumang is stubborn, drawing a foul and swishing two free throws for a 58-60 score with 36 seconds left.
Things went topsy-turvy in the final seconds as Teng missed a floater and in the ensuing loose ball, UE power forward Chris Javier forced a jumpball with Torres with 11 seconds left.
Javier won the jumpball and in the ensuing play, Sumang, who led his team with 16 points and five assists, airballed a pull-up jumper which could have tied the game.
“We were lucky to pull this through with 36 turnovers,” quipped La Salle head coach Juno Sauler in an exasperated tone.
“We knew they will press, but what we’ve practiced is different from what they did in the game,” he added.
With the escape act, La Salle won its second straight game after losing its first two games for the season.
The Red Warriors, on the other hand, absorbed its first loss of the season after cruising past the lowly University of the Philippines and Adamson University.
Box score:
La Salle, 60 – Teng 18, Torres 14, Vosotros 12, Rivero 8, Van Opstal 5, Perkins 2, Tratter 1, Andrada 0, Montalbo 0, Bolick 0
UE, 58 – Sumang 16, Mammie 8, Varilla 8, Olayon 7, Galanza 5, Jumao-as 4, Alberto 4, Arafat 3, Javier 2, De Leon 1
Quarter scores: 12-14, 26-28, 36-46, 60-58
