 |
| Ed Daquioag nearly forced the UST-La Salle game to overtime, but Jeron Teng scored the game-winner for the latter. Carmelo Culvera |
SAN JUAN, MM—La Salle completed the cast of the teams that will qualify for the FilOil Flying V Preseason Premier Cup quarterfinals with an 84-82 victory over UST in a knockout match at the FilOil Flying V Arena on Saturday night.
Jeron Teng hit the go-ahead shot with 0.8 second left as the Green Archers escaped with the win despite losing a late 11-point lead.
La Salle led, 76-65, with 3:12 left as Thomas Torres sparked an 11-2 run with two triples.
But Mario Bonleon and Jon Sheriff built a 9-0 UST run that cut the lead to two, 76-74, with 1:50 remaining.
Torres fired another three to put the gap back to five, but Bonleon answered with a triple of his own and the Archers' lead was down to two again, 79-77, with 1:27 to go.
Torres only made one of two free throws in the nextcplay, but Abu Tratter grabbed the offensive rebound. In the second chance play, Andrei Caracut misfired a triple, opening a chance for the Growling Tigers to inch closer.
Ed Daquioag missed a long two, but UST got the ball back as Caracut turned the ball over.
Daquioag made two free throws with 19.7 seconds left to cut La Salle's lead to one, 80-79.
Jason Perkins hit a pair of charities to give the Archers a three-point edge with 17 seconds left, but Daquioag sank a corner triple to tie the game, 82-all, with 10.2 seconds to go.
UST had a chance to steal the win as La Salle committed an error with 6.8 seconds left, but Sheriff made a costly error of his own as he failed to inbound the ball, setting up Teng's heroics.
Teng ran the full length of the floor and made the game-winning layup. UST failed to answer Teng's field goal.
Torres finished with a game-high 26 points and nine rebounds along with a steal, while Perkins had 14 points, 18 rebounds, and three assists for La Salle, which actually moved up to third place in Group B after getting the second-best quotient on a three-way tie for second place with San Beda, which had the best quotient, and UE. In the process, the latter fell to fourth place.
Daquioag finished with 20 points, three rebounds, and eight assists for UST, which bowed out of the competition after finishing fifth at 4-4.
The Green Archers will take on the Perpetual Help Altas, while the Red Warriors battle the JRU Heavy Bombers in the knockout quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Box Scores:
La Salle 84-Torres 26, Caracut 17, Perkins 14, Teng 12, Tratter 9, Gob 4, Go 2, Pascual 0
UST 82-Daquioag 20, Lao 14, Vigil 13, Bonleon 10, Sheriff 8, Lee 8, Huang 3, Kakonda 2, Faundo 2, Arana 2, Caunan 0, Garrido 0
Quarterscores: 20-19, 40-42, 57-57, 84-82
.jpg)
