Archers get back at Maroons

MANILA, Philippines — La Salle made sure the axe wouldn’t fall this time.

With Ben Mbala anchoring a solid defensive effort and putting the cuffs on University of the Philippines top gun Paul Desiderio, a vengeful Green Archers scored an 85-62 payback over first round tormentor Maroons last night in the UAAP Season 80 men’s basketball tournament at Filoil Flying V Center.

“We had lost three or four games against UP (dating back to the summer leagues) so it’s like a game of pride for us. We had to find a way to get back at them and I think we did it today,” said Mbala, whose team improved to 7-2.

Aside from scoring 27 points plus 14 rebounds and two blocks, Mbala slid to small forward and neutralized Desiderio, the hero of UP’s 98-87 upset in the first round. From 30 points in the first time, Desiderio coughed up seven markers on a 2-of-13 clip against the taller and bigger Cameroonian.

“Well, I just stuck to the game plan. I just had to stay in front of him; even if I’m blown by, I’m bigger, faster, I can recover and go for a block or something,” he said.

Assistant coach Mark Balderama, who stood in for coach Aldin Ayo in the post-game presscon, said Desiderio was the focus of their defense.

“Our game plan is to shut him down and the best person to do that is Ben; we still have enough big men to play our No. 4, that’s why we played Ben No. 3,” he said.

Ricci Rivero added 20 and Kib Montalbo shot 12  for DLSU.

Jun Manzo led the way with 13 for UP, which dropped to 4-5.

Earlier, Far Eastern U rebounded from back-to-back setbacks by running roughshod over a short-handed University of Santo Tomas side, 96-70.

The Tams came out firing from the opening tip and stormed to a 29-16 tear to practically take the fight out the winless Tigers, whose misery was worsened by the absence of key players Steve Akomo (injury) and Jordan Sta. Ana (illness).

The Morayta-based crew improved to 5-4 for solo fourth while sending the Tigers to their ninth straight setback.

“Too bad for UST, wala yung Top 2 players nila si Akomo and Sta Ana (We got a good break their Top 2 players Akomo and Sta. Ana didn’t play today). But it is what it is, a good win for us,” said FEU mentor Olsen Racela.

Ken Tuffin (14), Arvin Tolentino (13), Jasper Parker (10) led a scoring parade that saw 15 FEU players land on the score sheets. The Tams also set season highs in points (96), three-point field goal (12 of 26), assists (27) and bench points (62) at the expense of lowly UST.

“Maganda yung shooting namin and more than that, I like our unselfishness, maganda ang pasahan namin (our ball movement) was excellent),” said Racela, whose team shot 52 percent from the floor and led by as many as 36 points.

Oliver de Guzman (17 points, 10 rebounds, six assists) and Jeepy Faundo (17 markers, 13 board) had a double-double for UST.