DESIDERIO DRILLS GAME WINNER FOR FIGHTING MAROONS
UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) was so close to pulling off a Sun day shocker. Except that the Growling Tigers made a defensive lapse on University of the Philippines’ (UP) main man Paul Desiderio in the dying seconds.
Desiderio ran through a number “This UST team is one tough team. of picks, got free from the defense of They can definitely give anybody’s Zach Huang and hoisted the gamemoney worth. If you don’t take UST winning three-pointer with 1.1 ticks seriously, they’re going to pay for it,” left to give the Fighting Maroons a said Fighting Maroons head coach Bo thrilling 74-73 escape in Season 80 Perasol, whose team led as high as 11 University Athletic Association of the points in the contest. Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball And they almost fell to that trap tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena. as UST kept on hanging on behind
The fourth-year shooting guard was the gutsy plays of Steve Akomo, misfiring the whole match but came Marvin Lee and Jordan Sta. Ana as out with the most important basket tehy tied the count at 68-all with for State University and foiled UST’s 2:10 remaining. unbelievable comeback to join Ateneo They even took the lead at 73-71 de Manila University at the top. on Lee’s two free throws with 5.3
“I’ve been hitting a lot of shots in seconds left on Gelo Vito’s foul. the game why I will not take that one. Perasol took a timeout and let I’m confident when I hit that shot,” said assistant coach Ricky Dandan drew Desiderio, who emerged as the lone the game-winning play. Fighting Maroon in double figures with “I don’t know how he (Desiderio) 17 points but was 2-of-11 from the raindid it but during timeout he really called bow territory and 6-of-20 overall. for it. He told us it will go in. And credit
Jeepy Faundo’s desperation heave to coach Ricky Dandan for designing after Desiderio’s trip almost hit the tarthat offensive play,” added Perasol. get but it served notice to the league. Vito added nine markers while Noah Webb and Juan Gomez de Liano each had seven points apiece for UP, which plays the Blue Eagles next.
Lee led all scorers with 20 points while Akomo had a solid UAAP debut with 15 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks before fouling out. Sta. Ana chipped in 11 points for the team of head coach Boy Sablan.