Showing how it’s done

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BY MICHAEL JUGADO AND ABBY TORALBA

IN what appeared to be a botched possession, guard CJ Austria of defending champion La Salle lost the handle against the pressing defense of University of the Philippines last night. But the ball landed straight to teammate Mike Phillips who spotted a wide-open Joshua David from the deep left corner.

Powered by those kinds of plays, the Green Archers turned back the erstwhile unbeaten Fighting Maroons 68-56 to cap their first-round bid with three straight wins in the 87th UAAP basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

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In crowd of 16,106 roaring fans, David banged in the three-pointer that pushed La Salle’s lead to 68-54, only 52.8 seconds to go that typified the Archers’ resolve after a big third quarter run by UP.

Archers assistant coach Gian Nazario, who spoke in lieu of coach Topex Robinson, said their troops simply rose to the occasion.

“First of all, I’d like to the thank the Lord for the win. Thanks for keeping all the players safe today. We’re just very happy on how things turned out,” Nazario said. “We know it’s gonna be a grind out game. We know it’s gonna be a game of runs and we’re able to weather the storm, sabi nga nila.

“Alam naman namin lahat what UP can do and capable of doing. We’re just happy the players responded well,” he added.

Reigning MVP Kevin Quiambao notched a game-high 20 points spiked by four three-pointers, to go with 10 rebounds and three assists for La Salle while David also knocked down four triples and finished with 14 markers, seven boards, and two dimes.

The victory allowed the Taft-based cagers to score a big follow up to an 88-67 drubbing of the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers last Sept. 29 and rose to 6-1.

The Maroons saw their six-game winning streak that included a 69-57 whipping of the Adamson University Soaring Falcons last Saturday, come to a screeching halt for a 6-1 card.

The highly anticipated duel was also marred by a heated altercation at the 2:54 mark of the third quarter that involved Nazario and UP counterpart Tom Chua before cooler heads prevailed.

The Archers built an early 35-15 spread before settling for a 38-25 edge at the break.

UP trimmed the deficit to 46-51 heading into the final canto.

Terrence Fortea’s two free throws shoved the Maroons to within 51-55 with 7:32 remaining but the Maroons held their ground behind big hits from Quiambao, JC Macalalag, and David.

Harold Alarcon showed the way for the Maroons with 19 points and five caroms while added 10 and 10.

Ace playmaker JD Cagulangan missed a second straight game (under the weather).

UP will now wait for the second round before it gets a shot at redemption.

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