Warriors outsteady Falcons for solo 3rd

University of the East outsteadied Adamson down the stretch to escape with a 60-56 win that put the Warriors at third spot in the UAAP men's basketball tournament Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

Veteran wingman Elmer Espiritu finished with 20 markers and a season-high six blocks to lead the Red Warriors in crawling out of a three-way tie for the third to fifth spots with idle University of Santo Tomas and De La Salle U, which was schedueld to meet its arch-rival Ateneo de Manila U later in the afternoon.

"We came out very tight today," said UE mentor Lawrence Chongson after the match. "I think this is because I emphasized that this match is a sort of do or die for us."

"Masyado kasing magkakalapit ang mga teams, if we lost today, Adamson will go up in the standing and we will go down to fifth spot," said Chongson.

With that in mind, Espiritu went to work right at the very start of the match as he contributed 13 markers in the first half then helped the Red Warriors subdue the rallying Adamson U, which last Thursday downed highly-favored De La Salle U, in the fourth period.

Espiritu's alley hoop dunk fed by playmaker Raphy Reyes early in the fourth quarter set the tone for the Red Warriors game in that pivotal period as the Recto-based squad took a 48-45 lead that they guarded until the final buzzer of the match that featured four deadlocks and six lead changes.

Another UE veteran - Paul Lee who finished with four assists - gave the Red Warriors a 56-52 advantage in the last 2:50, scoring three straight points behind the line as Chongson's boys capitalized on Adamson's penalty situation.

Then Val Acuna buried a trey after Espiritu won the jumpball between him and Alex Nuyles, giving UE a 59-53 lead.

With the break going UE's way and the Falcons missing two straight attempts from the field after, Acuna sank a triple with 1:10 remaining and the Red Warriors erected a 59-53 lead.

And after Adamson playmaker Lester Alvarez, who paced the Falcons with a team-high 14 markers, buried a hurried trey with 13.1 seconds that pegged the score at 60-56, Roider Cabrera intercepted Espiritu's inbound but Alvarez and Jerick Canada missed their consecutive treys that could have changed the result of the match.

"Nangyayari talaga 'yon," said Chongson. "But now that we've won, hopefully tuloy-tuloy na."

UE's victory marked that return of Narciso Llagas after a one-game suspension with the slotman helping the Red Warriors with a double-double 10 points and 10 rebounds production.

The same Red Warriors win sent the Falcons at the bottom of the standings with a 2-7 slate.

"We will meet FEU next which is another must-win for us," said Chongson. "We need to win games against the likes of FEU if we want to show people that we belong to same league as Ateneo." - GMANews.TV