UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: Adamson vs La Salle

UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: Adamson vs La Salle

UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: Adamson vs La Salle

UAAP Season 84 Men's Basketball: Adamson vs La Salle

De La Salle University sent Adamson University reeling to its fifth-straight defeat, scoring a 61-58 come-from-behind win in the UAAP Season 84 men's basketball tournament, Saturday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Trailing by eight, no thanks to Soaring Falcons' 20-4 run, the Green Archers responded with an 11-2 blast of their own to pull back ahead, 56-55, with just 51.4 seconds left.

In the ensuing play, Didat Hanapi went for a shot but Justine Baltazar swatted his shot away, setting Evan Nelle for a triple and a four-point DLSU lead with 16.3 ticks to go, 59-55.

However, Keith Zaldivar buried a corner trey off an AdU timeout to inch within one, 58-59 with 10.4 seconds remaining.

Joaqui Manuel was sent on the charity stripe in which he calmly drained both. On the other end, Baltazar secured the win for the Green Archers after blocking Zaldivar's attempt to send the game to overtime.

“I think we lost focus when we got the 10-point lead.” said La Salle coach Derrick Pumaren. “We battled down on defense. We made stops. We got the lead and Evan hit the big three-point shot with the game on the line.”

Manuel, despite not being fielded the past two games, came in ready and produced 14 points and six rebounds for the Green Archers.

Nelle was a marksman from deep with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from deep, while Schonny Winston got 10 points.

DLSU is now at 5-2 for third seed while AdU ended the first round at seventh behind a 1-6 record.

Jerom Lastimosa paced the Soaring Falcons with 15 points and seven assists, while Lenda Douanga had 11 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks.

The Scores:

LA SALLE 61 -- Manuel 14, Nelle 12, Winston 10, M. Phillips 8, Lojera 8, Baltazar 6, Galman 3, Nwanwko 0, Nonoy 0, B. Phillips 0.

ADAMSON 58 -- Lastimosa 15, Douanga 11, Sabandal 10, Hanapi 9, Zaldivar 5, Manzano 4, Magbuhos 2, Peromingan 2, Yerro 0, Colonia 0, Calisay 0, Erolon 0, Maata 0, Jaymalin 0.

Quarterscores: 15-15, 30-26, 45-42, 61-58. (Dennis Lachica, Sportsmanila Photojournalist)