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| UST Tigresses center Sai Larosa's stellar performance in the final quarter against the FEU Lady Tamaraws puts them back in the winning column, after suffering a bad beat against unbeaten NU. (file) |
By Kevin Estrada
PASAY -- UST leaned on the solid fourth quarter by center Sai Larosa to prevail over FEU in a see-saw tiff, 73-67 in the UAAP Women's Basketball tournament Saturday noon at the MOA Arena.
Bouncing back from their nightmare beatdown of NU last Wednesday, Larosa fired all of her 17 points in the second half, 11 in the final frame for the Tigresses of Haydee Ong to move to solo second at 3-1 midway into the first half.
Larosa also collared 10 boards to complete her 3rd double-double of the season.
Jem Angeles also shot seven of her 21 points in the final quarter for UST who even lost Anjel Anies to fouls in the final 31.2 seconds left.
Valerie Mamaril's 21 points for the Lady Tams went down the drain after losing steam when they erected the game's biggest lead at 10 in the third period to go down to .500.
UST and FEU went into a shootout right from the opening tip, with the Tigresses gained a 19-16 lead.
Much has been the same in the second quarter where UST held the same three-point lead at thr break.
But FEU went to work in the third, as Mamaril fired 9 points in that period to put the Lady Tams ahead by four.
However, UST persisted in the fourth. And despite the technical foul slapped to Ong with 6:27 left galvanized the Tigresses more.
Santo Tomas were down by eight, 57-65 with 3:47 left when they unleashed a 16-2 run to take the game away from the season hosts, with Larosa scoring the go-ahead bucket with 1:04 left to put UST up for good, 66-65.
Larosa then capped off her solid game with the dagger lay-up with 24.8 ticks to go to put the game out of the Lady Tamaraws' reach.
The Scores
UST 73 -- Angeles 21, Anies 18, Larosa 17, Isanan 8, Gandalla 6, Tortillo 2, Aujero 1
FEU 67 -- Mamaril 21, Quiapo 11, Arellado 9, Jumuad 9, Taguiam 7, Gerner 4, Balleser, Antiola 2
Quarter scores: 19-16, 35-32, 51-55, 73-67
Follow him on Twitter: @KevinLEstrada
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