UAAP: UE snaps four-game slide, edges UP

University of the East shrugged off University of the Philippines’ spirited challenge to escape with a 59-54 victory and finally barge into the win column of the 73rd UAAP men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Araneta Coliseum. The Red Warriors lost a commanding halftime lead in the third period but leaned on ace scorer Paul lee’s hot shooting hands to bail his team out of trouble to win the collision of two squads that entered the game with similar 0-4 slates. Lee, still battling an injured right foot, came up with 23 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals to power the Recto-based dribblers, who have been struggling this season after losing of the core of last year's team that reached the finals against Ateneo. "We still got a long way to go. Hopefully we could use this win to shrug off our bad start," said coach Lawrence Chongson, whose school beat UP for the seventh straight time since 2007. UE gained a 31-21 lead in the early moments of the third period but saw its advantage wiped out behind the fiery shooting of highly-touted rookie Mike Silungan. Silungan, who underwent two years of residency, showed why there was so much hype on him prior to the start of the tournament by erupting for 10 points in the third period to give UP a 40-33 edge with a few seconds left. But Lee uncorked a buzzer-beating three-pointer to cut the lead to 40-36 entering the final canto. That enabled UE to gain instant momentum by exchanging leads with UP in the fourth. Lee put his team on top for good with a booming trey for a 53-51 lead with barely two minutes left then set-shooting Paul Zamar unveiled a three of his own for a 56-51 spread, 1:34 remaining. Silungan answered back by cutting the deficit to two (56-54) on a triple but missed a tough fall away jumper off two defenders that could have tied the game. And from there, Lee made the Fighting Maroons pay by firing a step back trey off Miggy Maniego with just 17.7 ticks to go to seal the final tally. Lee, who admitted that his foot is still around 60-percent, shot 8-of-21 from the field. James Martinez, the other half of UE’s two-guard combo, added 10 points while lanky Kenneth Acibar outplayed Magi Sison with six points and 11 boards. Silungan registered a season-high 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting after scoring just two points in the first half. Sison tallied 11 points and eight boards but UP, which played minus the injured Woody Co, fell to 0-5 its worst start since its 0-14 season in 2007. – JVP, GMANews.TV