A comeback win against University of the Philippines is the best birthday gift La Salle Green Archers could give coach Aldin Ayo, which they deliberately grabbed on Sunday, 85-62, in the UAAP Season 80 men’s basketball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
After suffering from a 98-78 loss to UP in the first round, the Green Archers found their mayhem back and improved to a 7-2 card, while the Fighting Maroons fell short and dropped to a 4-5 card to stay at the fifth place.
“We needed to find a way to get back at them,” said reigning MVP Ben Mbala. “I feel like we were able to execute our Mayhem defense.”
Mbala led La Salle, scoring 20 of his 27 points in the first half and grabbed 14 rebounds and two blocks along the game.
With a new game plan, Mbala played small forward to keep a tough defense on Paul Desiderio, who scored 30 points in the first round. Desiderio struggled to push past Mbala and was limited with just seven points on 2-of-13 shooting.
Santi Santillan’s basket with 6:06 left in the third period gave the Green Archers its biggest lead, 60-32.
UP trimmed the lead to as low as 14 points in the final frame, but with Ricci Rivero on the front line, the Fighting Maroons fought no more as mayhem prevailed.
Rivero finished with 20 points.
Meanwhile, Jun Manzo led the Fighting Maroons with 13 points.
The Scores:
DLSU 85 – Mbala 27, Rivero R 20, Montalbo 12, Go 8, Santillan 7, Rivero P 3, Baltazar 3, Melecio 3, Caracut 2, Tratter 0, Gonzales 0, Tero 0
UP 62 – Manzo 13, Ouattara 9, Desiderio 7, Gomez de Liano Ju 7, Gomez de Liano Ja 6, Lim 6, Vito 6, Webb 5, Jaboneta 3, Dario 0, Harris 0, Romero 0, Lao 0
Quarterscores: 24-14, 51-27, 65-45, 85-62
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