La Salle silences Growling Tigers

ENCHO SERRANO and Aljun Melecio joined forces to lead De La Salle University to a lopsided 9277 win over University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Season 82 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Serrano and Melecio finished with career-best outputs of 29 and 26 points, respectively. The Green Archers’ win-loss record improved to 3-4 at the end of the first round.

“We were due to win. The way the team has been practicing, it showed in today’s game. We were just talking about it — when our team follows the game plan, the results will follow,” said La Salle coach Gian Nazario.

The win was a great morale booster for the Green Archers who suffered a 71-72 loss to University of the Philippine last Wednesday.

“We played well against Adamson, we were eight seconds unlucky versus UP, but this time around we made sure that we are going to finish the game well and it is something that we’ve been preaching to our players the past two weeks.” The Green Archers maintained their dominance in the second half after a 4232 lead at halftime. Justine Baltazar’s lay- up gave La Salle a 78- 61 cushion with 4: 53 remaining in the game and the Archers were never threatened from thereon.

Jamie Malonzo almost had a doubledouble output of 13 points and nine rebounds for La Salle.

The Green Archers shot 51-percent from the field and executed 19 assists. Six of La Salle’s eight triples came from Melecio.

Brent Paraiso led the Growling Tigers with a career-high 22 points and six rebounds. UST finished the first round with a 4-3 win-loss record.

Soulemane Chabi Yo posted 16 points and 14 rebounds for the

Growling Tigers.