Archers take fight out of Maroons
The La Salle Archers welcomed coach Aldin Ayo with a birthday song before the game. They followed it up with by racking up win No. 9 as a post-game gift. UAAP GAMES POSTPONED
The league announced it is postponing the games pitting UE and FEU and Adamson and Ateneo at The Arena in San Juan today due to inclement weather.
Drawing strength from another bullish performance by Ben Mbala and the return of team captain Jeron Teng, La Salle outlasted a muchimproved State U, 78-72, yesterday to extend its unbeaten run to nine and plant one foot to the Final Four in the 79th UAAP basketball tournament at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The 6-7 Mbala bulldozed his way to 17 points, 20 rebounds, two steals and a block while Teng uncorked a game-high 21 points on his first game since sitting out two games due to bone spurs on his right foot to help seal the Archers at least a playoff for a Final Four berth.
La Salle’s win halted UP’s twogame streak while sending the latter to its seventh defeat against three wins.
It was also fitting gift to Ayo, who turned 39 yesterday.
“I don’t really celebrate my birthday because I’m always playing, but I appreciate the team for the birthday song,” said Ayo, who declined to go the customary postgame interview but granted one on
The STAR and a few reporters. Ayo admitted it was a tough game and didn’t hide his admiration to his players for keeping their composure when UP confused La Salle with varying defensive approaches.
“We were disrupted by their defensive camouflage or change up. We’ve been practicing that kind of defense but good thing we stick together,” he added.
The win also pushed La Salle five wins away from sweeping its way to the best-of-three finals.
Ayo though stressed he is focused on the present.
“We just want to continue to improve our team. I don’t want to think ahead because our focus now is against NU, our next opponent,” he said. Ayo also heaped praises on Teng. “He’s back to 100 percent. He’s the leader of this team and we missed him in the past two games. Good thing he’s back running the team because our system is really focused on him,” said Ayo of Teng.
The Maroons kept the game within striking distance despite repeated attempts by the Archers to blow the game wide open.
Javier Gomez de Liano cut La Salle’s lead to four twice, the last at 52-48, late in the third quarter.
La Salle unloaded a blistering run to start the final period to lead by as much as 13 points but UP clawed its way back again to cut it to six, 71-65, on two free throws by Andrew Harris with over a minute to go. It turned out UP’s final gasp. In the other game, Santo Tomas downed National U, 73-69, to end a five-game slide and improve to 3-7.
The Bulldogs fell to 4-5.