La Salle weathered Precious Momowei’s 42-point explosion of and an apparent knee injury by Kean Baclaan to grab a massive 111-110 overtime victory over the University of the East Red Warriors in their UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball matchup Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Green Archers trailed by as much as 21 points in the game, but they clawed out of the hole and did just enough to tally the comeback win.
Jacob Cortez powered La Salle with 26 points, five assists, four steals and two rebounds, while Earl Abadam and Mike Phillips had 18 markers, respectively. The former had a game-high +- of +16, while the latter grabbed 11 boards.
After losing a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, UE started the overtime period with six straight points as they took a 104-98 lead.
But La Salle slowly reduced the gap with a 6-1 run to make it a 104-105 game with less than two minutes to go.
A Momowei jumper cut the blitz, 107-104, but the Archers, led by Cortez and Abadam, took control late.
After leading by a dozen, 60-48, at the half, the Red Warriors turned things up a notch in the third quarter, unleashing a 15-6 run to grab a 21-point lead, 75-54, after a 3-pointer by John Abate.
But an 18-6 counter run by La Salle in the same quarter sliced the deficit to eight, 72-80.
And while the Recto-based squad retook a double digit advantage in the fourth, La Salle would slowly nip the lead away and take the lead, 95-93, before a triple by Cortez gave them a 98-93 lead with 1:20 left.
Momowei and Abate then teamed up and equalized the game as Cortez’s buzzer-beating triple missed.
Baclaan had 17 points in 21 minutes of play before he left the game with 4:21 remaining. His injury came a few days after big man Mason Amos also tore his MCL.
Momowei stood tall for UE with 42 points on 16-of-27 shooting, to go with 13 rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal. This is the highest scoring output by a Red Warrior since Alvin Pasaol’s 49-point game in Season 80.
Abate and Lingolingo tallied 25 and 24 points, respectively.
La Salle evened up its standings with a 3-3 slate, while UE dropped to 0-6.