Games Thursday (August 18, 2011)
Araneta Coliseum
1:00pm – Far Eastern vs. State U
3:00pm – Adamson vs. National
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| FINAL | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| (6 – 2) | (4 – 4) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 68 – 66 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In a game of runs, Adamson University finally came out on top after 40 minutes, edging De La Salle University by a final count of 68-66 in the main game of the 74th University Athletic Association of the Philippines doubleheader on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
Despite squandering a 22 point lead that was built on a lopsided 24-2 second period, an amazing clutch performance from Alex Nuyles proved to be enough to knock out the pesky Green Archers in the end.
The 6-foot-2 two-guard wound up with 14 points, together with 9 rebounds and 5 assists, that included a clutch close-range basket with only 0.8 seconds to spare that capped a tightly contested final minute.
Eric Camson, described by Adamson head coach Leo Austria as a “ball magnet” due to his skill in tracking the brown spheroid, topped all scorers with 20 points. Lester Alvarez equaled Nuyles’ point total with 14.
Coach Austria noted that he was afraid of an end game collapse, hence shuffling his players around the start of the fourth period to supposedly avert disaster.
However, the young core of the Green Archers refused to lay down and die to be feasted on.
Mostly due to the steady play from second-year guard Almond Vosotros, who poured out 12 of his team-high total of 18 points in the fourth period alone, to bring the Taft-based cagers back to life from 17 points down at the start of the final canto.
The former San Sebastian Staglet buried timely baskets, either from penetration drives to the basket or from cold-blooded set shots from behind the arc, to bring the Archers within one at the 1:12 mark of the fourth.
Eric Camson and Luigi Dela Paz retalliated with clutch shots of their own, a long two point jumper and a tough corner trey respectively, to nail the game at 66-all to set up a wild finish with only 15.8 seconds left on the clock.
Armed with determination to take the crucial last shot, Alex Nuyles took the ball from 28 feet out and straight to the cup for a tough game-winning floater.
However, a last ditch opportunity by Vosotros to lob in the ball to a cutting Dela Paz was deflected by the stringent defense of Rodney Brondial at the buzzer to preserve the victory.
“I’m very happy with the way they played,” said DLSU head coach Dindo Pumaren of his wards. “They played with effort, played with heart. They made huge improvements in their game.”
“It’s a learning process. We just need to play smart in the end,” the second-year mentor noted.
Dela Paz pulled together 11 points, while Norbert Torres slipped in a quiet 10 points in the loss.
Adamson pulls away to gain solo possession of second place with a 6-2 mark, while De La Salle created a three-way logjam along with University of Santo Tomas and Far Eastern University in third place with equal 4-4 marks.
BOX SCORES
ADAMSON (68): Camson 20, Nuyles 14, Alvarez 14, Brondial 6, Lozada 6, Cabrera 5, Colina 2, Manyara 1, Etrone 0, Cañada 0
DE LA SALLE (66): Vosotros 18, Dela Paz 11, Torres 10, Van Opstal 6, Tampus 6, Villanueva 6, Marata 3, Revilla 2, Paredes 2, Andrada 2, Sara 0, Mendoza 0
Quarters: 11-18, 35-20, 56-39, 68-66
