On paper, this match looked like it was one that La Salle would take handily. Surprisingly, it was University of Santo Tomas that took control despite the lack of a full lineup.

The Growling Tigers handily beat out the Green Archers by a count of 79-70 in the main opening day game of the 2011 Filoil Flying V Hanes Pre-Season Premier Cup on Saturday at The Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan City, despite missing the services of Jeric Teng and Chris Camus.

Highly touted rookie Kevin Ferrer, a former RP Youth team swingman who is highly regarded as the possible savior of their men’s basketball program, picked up the slack and finished with a modest 14 points along with 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

Most of the plays for Coach Pido Jarencio’s squad during the match went around a pick-and-pop play for Clark Bautista who would camp from beyond the arc and knock down only 4-of-13 (31 percent) of those shots as part of his 16 points in the day before fouling out late in the match. Melo Afuang added 19 points and 9 rebounds in 34 minutes of action before going down with an injured right hand.

But the day belonged to Jeric Fortuna, the former Zobel guard who burned the Green Archers with his stellar shooting from beyond the arc, connecting 4-for-9 (44 percent) treys en route to 20 points with 8 rebounds and 7 assists.

Unfortunately for De La Salle, they could not get their game going from the outset, going down by as much as 16 points in the ballgame. Despite a late game comeback that saw the deficit cut down to a two possession match, five missed foul shots from Oda Tampus and Luigi Dela Paz definitely hurt their chances in the final minutes of the ballgame.

Jovet Mendoza had 15 points, while Simon Atkins and a debuting Norbert Torres each had 11 points in a losing effort.

GAME NOTABLES:
DNPs
Other than Teng and Camus for UST, Almond Vosotros (infection) and Joseph Marata did not play for DLSU.

NEW NUMBER
Simon Atkins donned a new number in this game, changing from his trademark Number 7 to Number 19. The reason is yet to be known, but this would be a good sign if this were to improve his suspect game from the past few years.

ROOKIE WATCH
De La Salle paraded three new high school recruits (Alfonso Gotladera, Louie Vigil, and Michael Pate) along with a trio of players who are expected to be elevated to Team A (Roldan Sara, Norbert Torres, and Arnold Van Opstal). Meanwhile, UST paraded Ferrer along with a pair of virtually unknown recruits (Nigerian big man Karim Abdul, guard Robin Tan). Unfortunately, DLSU’s highly-rated high school pickups did not fare as well as their UST counterparts in the match, led by Ferrer’s output of 14 points and 7 rebounds.

FROM BEYOND THE ARC
UST knocked down more treys (10) than DLSU (5), which proved to be the game-changing stat. Jeric Fortuna and Clark Bautista, who are Coach Pido Jarencio’s trusted perimiter weapons, each had four. Kevin Ferrer, who extends the defense with his dead-eye shooting, had the other two.

FIELD GOAL SHOOTING
Both teams shot at an even 38 percent, but UST had more shots at the basket (26-for-69) than their Taft counterparts.