Resurgent Archers thump Tams; Bulldogs rip Falcons

MANILA, Philippines - La Salle flirted with disaster once again but regained its bearing this time to prevail over Far Eastern U, 75-66, and tighten up the race in the UAAP Season 76 men’s basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena yesterday.

Jeron Teng (16 points, including seven in the fourth) and Almond Vosotros (13 markers, including five in the clutch) delivered the finishing kick as La Salle foiled FEU’s searing fightback from 12 points down in the fourth and averted a repeat of its endgame meltdown in a previous 79-83 overtime loss to the Tams.

The Green Archers picked up their second straight win for 5-4 overall and solo fourth spot, while dealing the Tams their second consecutive loss after a 7-0 start. 

FEU remained on top of the heap but its back-to-back setbacks enabled the chasing pack to close in with National U moving one win behind with a 6-3 mark following an 80-48 shellacking of Adamson in the first game. Idle University of the East stands closely behind with 5-3, just half a game ahead of DLSU.

With FEU poised to duplicate its earlier come-from-behind triumph, the Green Archers decided to write a different story for Round 2 and turned to Teng and Vosotros for the clincher.

DLSU coach Juno Sauler downplayed the huge win and maintained that much work needs to be done from here.

“(This is) no different from any other victory, whether its (against) a top team, bottom team, or a middle team,” Sauler said.

The Archers raced to a 43-21 tear in the second canto and still enjoyed a 62-50 spread going to the last 9:28. But the Tams unloaded a 10-0 salvo capped by a triple by R.R. Garcia to get to within two, 6:23 left. Bailing them out were Teng, who scored three crucial baskets and Vosotros, who knocked down a trey plus a pair of splits, to secure it for DLSU.

“I’m still not satisfied with the way we played. There were too many turnovers, 17. We had nine assists in the first half but only three in the second half. That’s the reason they (FEU) were able to come back. We still have to do a better job for 40 minutes,” said Sauler.

Jason Perkins paced La Salle with 18 points and 13 rebounds.