National University regained the solo lead after holding off La Salle, 82-78, in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament on Sunday at UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.
Jake Figueroa scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and grabbed eight rebounds to power the Bulldogs, who climbed to 5-1 for a half-game lead over second-running University of Santo Tomas. PJ Palacielo and Paul Francisco also hit double digits with 16 and 13 points for NU, which shot 56 percent from the field.
‘Our motivation was the fact that in our preseason games, we couldn’t win against La Salle,’ said NU guard Reinhard Jumamoy after scoring all of his eight points in the fourth quarter.
‘We brought our learning from those losses and luckily we got that win today.’
The Green Archers, who absorbed their second consecutive setback in just a span of a week, suffered a double whammy after losing forward Mason Amos to an injury in the fourth quarter.
Mike Phillips notched a double-double of 15 points and 16 rebounds, but couldn’t keep La Salle from sliding to 2-3. Guards Jacob Cortez and Kean Baclaan added 15 and 11, respectively.
Baclaan kept the Archers alive late after his 3-pointer cut the Bulldogs’ lead to one with still seven ticks to go. After Jumamoy sank two free throws to give NU an 81-78 cushion, La Salle blew its chance to tie after LeBron Jhames Daep committed a traveling violation.
NU (5-1) faces Ateneo (4-2) on Saturday at Araneta Coliseum.