Martinez, Lee lift Warriors to 75-65 win over Tigers

University of the East coach Lawrence Chongson would like a fresh start on the Red Warriors' dismal campaign in the 73rd UAAP men's basketball tournament.

"It's far from over," said Chongson. "We'll go down fighting." So after a disappointing first round, in what Chongson described as like a "part of their tune-up", the Red Warriors open the UAAP's second phase in style beating University of Santo Tomas, 75-65, on Thursday at the Araneta Coliseum. Eager to keep their slim Final Four hopes alive, the Recto-based dribblers unleashed their fiery arsenal in the second half behind the two-guard combo of James Martinez and Paul Lee, and rookie Kenneth Acibar to win just for the second time in eight matches. "Maybe the reason why we struggled at the start was because we lacked the necessary tune-up games leading up to the UAAP season," said Chongson. "So I told the team to treat the first round as part of our tune-up and lets regroup and make the second round as our real tournament." Martinez doubled his scoring average by firing 20 points on 4-of-9 from the three-point region, 7-of-13 overall, a big difference from his erratic 32-percent clip in the first round. It was the veteran guard's best performance this season a year after coming off an ACL injury. He failed to find his offensive rhythm like the way when he saw action for Cossack Blue in the Philippine Basketball League and UE's stint in the FilOil preseason tournament. It was also Martinez' first 20-point game since scoring 23 back in 2007 in UE's win over University of the Philippines. Martinez hit a jumper with 8:55 left and UE gained a commanding 60-43 lead then erupted for two triples off eight consecutive points for a 72-56 advantage with 3:54 to go. Lee, who finished second to Far Eastern University's RR Garcia in the MVP race after the first round, had 16 points, seven rebounds and eight assists while the lanky Acibar, who scored an alley-hoop dunk in the third, had 14 points and 12 boards. Another key player was seldom-used JM Noble with six points and five rebounds in just 18 minutes. His hustle plays in the second half, a number of which tapping the ball towards UE's point guards, helped the Warriors gain second chance opportunities with their offense. The former Letran Squire played just one game and four minutes during the first round and his presence proved to be timely after the injury of big man Sam Razon. Razon left the first quarter in what would likely be an ACL injury but Noble picked up the slack to help UE's cause. "Maybe he was due," said Chongson. "I was really going to give him some playing time and he exceeded our expectations." Jeric Fortuna finished with 14 point, six rebounds and two assists while Melo Afuang added 13 markers and 11 boards in a losing cause. Jeric Teng, meanwhile, had 10 markers. But Clark Bautista and Chris Camus had a lethargic effort. Bautista shot 2-of-13 from the field despite scoring nine points while Camus registered six points and seven rebounds. Bautista's struggles from rainbow country highlighted a disappointing 4-of-24 clip from that area. The Growling Tigers, who suffered their third straight defeat to remain at sixth with a 3-5 card, dropped six of the last eight matches against the Warriors dating back to the 2007 season. From a slim 32-30 halftime lead, the Recto-based dribblers dropped 24 points in the third while holding the Tigers to 12 to enter the fourth period enjoying a 56-42 spread. UE just traded baskets with UST in the final canto while checking the Tigers' outside shooters to complete the win. – JVP, GMANews.TV