Manganti lifts Falcons over Maroons
Games Saturday (Filoil Flying V Center) 1 p.m. – AdU vs NU 4 p.m. – UST vs AdMU
From zero to hero again, Sean Manganti reclaimed his status as one of Adamson’s lethal weapons, banging in the game-winner as the Falcons rallied past the pesky University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons, 69-68, to preserve their streak in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan yesterday.
Scoreless in AdU’s previous game against University of Santo Tomas due to an injured toe, Manganti bounced back strong with an 18-point effort capped by the marginal basket off a broken play with 0.7 seconds to enable the Falcons to stay perfect in four games.
“We’re lucky to survive this game,” said AdU coach Franz Pumaren after dodging the bullet in the contest where they had to fight back from a 12-point deficit.
“We allowed UP to dictate the game, we drifted away from what we’re supposed to do, we were kind of selfish. Players probably read social media too much that we’re so great at 3-0 but I’ve been telling them 3-0 is nothing, probably if we win the championship they can act that way.
“First time I yelled at the players this season, I aged six months in this game. But I appreciate the players, the coaching staff, they really pushed themselves. We were in deep water already but we’re able to regain our composure,” he added,
The Falcons stayed at the summit ahead of defending champion Ateneo, which earlier streaked to its third straight win at the expense of University of the East, 89-62, for 3-1 card.
UP threatened to drop the upset axe on Adamson, seizing a 57-45 lead in the third and keeping a 65-57 cushion with 3:56 to go. Manganti, though, went to work and sparked a 12-3 windup to steal it from the Maroons, who dropped to 1-3.
“Everybody’s saying it’s a lucky win for us, good shot by Sean but if you look at the whole game, we’re trailing probably 75 percent of the way. I think it showed our poise, it showed we didn’t panic in spite of the runs UP made,” said Pumaren.
All looked lost as Bright Akhuetie’s put-back off a Paul Desiderio missed trey sent UP up, 68-67. Then came Manganti. His drop pass to Papi Sarr tapped by Akhuetie, the lanky forward was quick to recover possession and launch the shot that saved AdU.
Meanwhile, matching the Warriors’ tenacity, the Blue Eagles earlier fought for every possession, especially under the boards, to set the tone for the runaway rout.
“Coming into this game, we wanted to make sure of two things: one to control the rebounds, win the battle of the boards because UE is the No. 1 offensive rebounding team so that’s one of the points of emphasis,” said AdMU assistant coach Sandy Arespacochaga, whose charges enjoyed a 46-27 gap in rebounding, including 19-9 on the offensive glass.
“Second, we knew UE fights hard, they play hard regardless of the score. We wanted to make sure we match their intensity from start until the end we didn’t let up in this regard and then we also executed well offensively against their changeup defense,” added Arespacochaga.
All but three of the 16 players deployed by Ateneo scored, led by Raffy Verano who banged in 12 before limping out with sprain at the 8:52 mark of the fourth. To underscore their teamwork, nine Blue Eagles accounted for at least two assists apiece in their season-high 24 total with Will Navarro and Gian Mamuyac having three dish-offs each.
Alvin Pasaol paced UE (0-4) with 17, missing all of his attempts from rainbow territory.
“We wanted to try to minimize his touches and make things difficult for him. He didn’t score from us from the threepoint line. That’s good, but he found ways to score off rebounds, cuts looseball situations and still scored 17 against us,” Arespacochaga said.