Falcons resume flight, claw Bulldogs

MANILA, Philippines — Adamson took to the clouds again, breaking out of a two-game slump with a 69-58 disposal of National U yesterday in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tourney at the MOA Arena.

Back to their old deadly selves, the Falcons vented their ire on the struggling Bulldogs and led from start to finish en route to securing the bounceback victory that gave them a share of the lead with idle Ateneo. (6-2).

Earlier, La Salle climbed to joint third with idle Far Eastern at 5-3 after demolishing University of the East, 79-59.  

AdU’s Big Three of Jerrick Ahanmisi (21 points), Papi Sarr (16) and Sean Manganti (11) provided the spark as the Falcons got back on track after dropping a pair of overtime setbacks to Far Eastern (85-88) and La Salle (78-79) at the end of the first round.

“Those two games that we lost are a minor bump along the way, just like pot holes driving around Metro Manila,” said AdU coach Franz Pumaren. “We’re going to continue on our journey, we’re still good, we just have to play consistent basketball.”

The Falcons came out firing against the Bulldogs, storming to huge margins that reached as high as 42-17. The Bulldogs, with Dave Ildefonso as anchor, rallied to within 41-49, but the Falcons made sure there won’t be a slip-up this time.

“We won but if you look at the first half and second half, it’s day and night. We played perfect first half but come second half, we just went through the motions, but of course, NU also played better in the second half,” said Pumaren.

Ildefonso finished with 21 for NU, which slipped to 2-6.

Meanwhile, newbie Encho Serrano came through with his breakout game of 18 markers, six rebounds, two assists and two steals while co-captain Andrei Caracut dropped a season-high 16 as the Archers cruised to the wire-to-wire triumph that put them on level with the Tams.

Notes: The UAAP cracked the whip on FEU’s Arvin Tolentino, Ateneo’s Thirdy Ravena and UP’s Javi Gomez de Lianao for their actions in last week’s games, a league official said. Tolentino, who was called for a disqualifying foul for hitting Santo Tomas’ Zach Huang, was meted a two-game suspension for this infraction, his second of the tournament. Ravena was slapped a one-game ban after the league, upon review, deemed his strike against UP’s Paul Desiderio was  unsportsmanlike. Gomez de Liano was penalized a sit-out for one match for incurring two technical fouls which led to his ejection in the Maroons’ loss to the Eagles.

The Scores

First Game

DLSU 79 – Serrano18, Caracut 16, Santilllan 13, Baltazar 12, Melecio 8, Manuel 3, Montalbo 3, Bates 2, Corteza 2, Dyke 2, Capacio 0, Go 0.

UE 59 . Pasaol 22 – Conner 12, Varilla 7, Bartolome 6, Antiporda 3, Cullar 3, Acuno 2, Manalang 2, Sobrevega 2, Beltran 0, Gagate 0, Guion 0, Lacap 0, Strait 0.

Quarterscores: 21-16, 47-36, 66-49, 79-59

Second Game

AdU 69 – Ahanmisi 21, Sarr 16, Manganti 11, Espeleta 8, Lastimosa 5, Magbuhos 4, Camacho 2, Mojica 2, Catapusan 0, Colonia 0, Macion 0, Pingoy 0, Zaldivar 0.

NU 58 – D. Ildefonso 21, Gaye 8, Diputado 6, Clemente 5, S. Ildefonso 5, Yu 3, Gallego 2, Joson 2, Malonzo 2, Rike 2, Sinclair 2, Aquino 0, Galinato 0, Morido 0, Tibayan 0.

Quarterscores: 27-11, 42-23, 54-45, 69-58