Mariano fires 24, Tigers inflict Red Warriors’ 2nd consecutive loss
Coming off a painful loss to National University on Wednesday, then losing their graduating team captain for the day’s ballgame, University of Sto. Tomas had a lot going against them.
Despite the absence of star forward Jeric Teng due to a shoulder injury, UST eventually outhustled the undersized University of the East, 88-77, to avoid a second straight loss during Saturday’s UAAP Season 76 action at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Karim Abdul lead the way in scoring with a game high 25 points coupled with 13 rebounds and 4 dishes. Mariano came up big in the second half to score 24 points with 11 rebounds while Daquioag shot 50% from beyond the arc to score 19.
Roi Sumang, as expected, was UE’s top scorer with 21 points with six assists. Olivares and Javier scored 15 and 10 points respectively to round out UE’s leading scorers.
The Red Warriors played without Charles Mammie, who served a one-game suspension after incurring his second unsportsmanlike foul with intention to hurt in their match against Adamson last Wednesday.
UST converted 42% of their field goals when compared to UE’s 36%. Despite Mammie not playing, the Red Warriors, surprisingly, outrebounded UST, 51-45. Moreover, UE had 19 assists while UST had 20 dimes.
UE struggled to score throughout the first canto thanks to UST’s defense. A shot by Mariano and Karim Abdul’s perfect trips to the charity stripe enabled UST to go up 6-0 before Sumido drained a trifecta to score UE’s first points of the quarter. Clark Bautista drained two shots from beyond the arc to put UST up by 10, but UE managed to score 4 before the end of the quarter at 16-10
It was a tug of war from then on as both squads exchanged baskets and traded leads. Olivares came up big for the Recto-based squad, making crucial baskets during the second quarter to keep UE at bay. Aljon Mariano and Daquioag, however, had other things in mind.
A steal from a Sumang’s errant pass enabled Mariano to score a layup to increase UST’s lead to 6, 58-52. Moreover, Mariano converted 3 free throws when he was fouled by Casajeros just beyond the arc with only 0.6 seconds remaining to finish the quarter at 63-56.
Sumang drained two crucial trifectas to keep the Red Warriors into the game with only 6:51 left on the clock. A layup after a defense-splitting run by Sumang enabled the Red Warriors to cut UST’s lead down to 1 at 67-66. Casajeros finally equalized for the Red Warriors with an and-one at 69-all. Ivan Hernandez placed UE in front at 71-70 with a subtle alley-oop orchestrated by Roi Sumang.
Mariano, however, led the charge for UST again in the dying minutes to prevent the Red Warriors from snatching away the win.
BOX SCORES
SANTO TOMAS (88): Abdul 25, Mariano 24, Daquioag 19, Ferrer 9, Bautista 8, So 3, Tan 0, Pe 0, Marata 0, Lo 0
UE (77): Sumang 21, Olivares 15, Javier 10, Casajeros 9, Santos 6, Sumido 3, Jumao-as 3, Hernandez 3, Alberto 3, Noble 2, Flores 2, Galanza 2
QUARTERS: 16-10 , 34-34, 63-56, 88-77
