La Salle held on to a 74-72 triumph against the listless Far Eastern University to bounce back from its deflating defeat to University of Santo Tomas in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament Wednesday at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion in Manila.
The Green Archers banked on their defensive fangs in the clutch after going scoreless in the final minute and nearly losing a five-point lead as Jorick Bautista muffed a game-tying lay-up in the last seven seconds for the win.
La Salle, which beat Adamson, 60-58, but wasted a 12-point lead against the host and dark horse UST, 93-84, thus improved to 2-1. It is behind for solo fourth place unbeaten Ateneo, UST and National University nearing the halfway mark of the first round in its title redemption bid.
Doy Dungo led the way with 17 points on three triples, while Mason Amos, Jacob Cortez and EJ Gollena churned out 14 points each for La Salle, which made it up for the quiet scoring team captain Mike Phillips with only six points on 1-of-7 clip.
Phillips bounced back in other departments though, collaring 13 rebounds and dishing nine assists as the Green Archers almost squandered a lead as high sa 58-44 in the third quarter.
“You really want to win coming off a loss and we had parts in the game where we’re playing really well for that bounce back win but you cannot say that you’re gonna have an easy win in the UAAP,” said assistant coach Caloy Garcia. “FEU came back in the fourth and we just had to figure out our struggles from there.”
Like its last match against the Growling Tigers with a 12-point lead in the third quarter, the Green Archers appeared headed into a blowout but their inexperience with a young core following the departure of two-time UAAP MVP Kevin Quiambao showed down the stretch.
La Salle was outscored by FEU, 21-10, in the fourth but its 74-69 cushion on Dungo’s jumper in the 1:22 mark proved to be enough for still a good momentum entering a gigatic duel against archrival Ateneo that’s been on tear at 3-0 after a Final Four miss on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Janrey Pasaol’s 25 points along with the efforts of Mo Konateh (14), Kirby Mongcopa (13) and Jorick Bautista (10) went for naught anew as the Tamaraws slid to 0-3 for a tie at the cellar with University of the East.
Meanwhile, FEU (1-1) scraped past La Salle (1-1), 73-72 in women’s basketball behind MG Manguiat and Amyah Espanol with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
The scores:
First Game
DLSU 74 – Dungo 17, Amos 14, Cortez 14, Gollena 14, Phillips 6, Marasigan 5, Pablo 2, Abadam 2, Daep 0, Melecio 0.
FEU 72 – Pasaol 25, Konateh 14, Mongcopa 13, Bautista 10, Owens 6, Daa 2, Ona 2, Bagunu 0, Montemayor 0, Salangsang 0, Amos 0.
Quarterscores: 21-14, 37-30, 64-51, 74-72