Red Warriors stun Maroons to strengthen Final Four bid
By Maxine Louise Lagman
22 October 2017
Romping into the second round, University of the East blasted University of the Philippines with a 73-64 win to strengthen their bid for a Final Four seat in the UAAP Season 80 men’s basketball tournament on Sunday at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
UE improved to a 3-7 card, while UP dropped to a 4-6 slate.
“I think we did a great job defensively,” said UE coach Derrick Pumaren, noting that they made sure to look out for UP’s Paul Desiderio, Jun Manzo and Ibra Outtara.
Outtara was fouled out from the game in the final 8:42, by which Alvin Pasaol took advantage of and shot a booming triple to boost UE gain a 68-58 lead in the remaining 3:52 minutes left in the game.
UP was still able to cut the lead to four, but back-to-back triples by Mark Maloles and Pasaol placed UE at a comfortable cushion, with the latter later on sealed the win despite suffering from cramps.
Pasaol once again exploded big results for UE as he finished with a double-double record of 32 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Red Warriors, while Mark Olayon had 11 markers, 10 boards and eight assists.
“It was a great effort for the guys. I was telling them that they had to contribute something when they get in the ball game. Those are the things that will win ball games for us and that is what happened,” added Pumaren.
Rookie Juan Gomez de Liano topped the Fighting Maroons with 22 points and eight rebounds, while his brother Javi added a double-double 17 points and 11 rebounds in the losing effort.
Desiderio and Manzo struggled in the field to combine for a 6-for-29 shooting from the field to chip in eight and seven points, respectively.
