UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: UE vs NU

UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: UE vs NU

UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: UE vs NU

UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: UE vs NU

National University pinned down University of the East, taking a wire-to-wire 77-61 victory to end its first round campaign in the UAAP Season 84 men's basketball tournament strong, Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The Bulldogs improved to 4-3 for solo fourth place while the Red Warriors ended the first round winless in seven matches.

"Big win for us," said first-year Bulldogs head coach Jeff Napa. "Madadala namin ito for the second round."

Dominant were the Bulldogs in the 40-minute affair, opening the game with 11 straight points before cruising to a 22-9 first quarter lead and never looking back.

NU would eventually stretch its advantage to 30, 62-32, after a Jolo Manansala bucket with two minutes and nine seconds remaining.

This is the second straight dominant win for the Bulldogs, also beating University of Santo Tomas, 81-52, last Thursday.

Balanced was the attack for NU with nine players scoring at least four points led by Michael Malonzo's 12 points to go with 10 rebounds and a block.

John Lloyd Clemente also netted 12 points while John Galinato was efficient with nine points in just seven minutes and 58 seconds of floor time.

Kyle Paranada led the Red Warriors anew with 12 points and three steals while Orin Catacutan and Jeremy Cruz tallied 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Despite already serving his league-imposed two-game suspension, UE head coach Jack Santiago was put on temporary suspension by the school pending its internal investigation of the incident that occurred last April 2 during the Red Warriors' game against the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons.

The Scores:

NU 77 -- Malonzo 12, Clemente 12, Galinato 9, Yu 8, Torres 7, Tibayan 7, Manansala 6, Enriquez 4, Minerva 4, Ildefonso 3, Joson 3, Felicilda 2, Figueroa 0, Flores 0, Mahinay 0.

UE 61 -- K. Paranada 12, Catacutan 11, J. Cruz 10, Pagsanjan 7, Escamis 6, Antiporda 5, Sawat 4, Tulabut 4, Guevarra 2, Abatayo 0, N. Paranada 0, Beltran 0, Villanueva 0, Lorenzana 0.

Quarterscores: 22-9, 44-21, 68-39, 77-61. (Dennis Lachica, Sportsmanila Photojournalist)