UST exploits UP's endgame collapse for 68-66 win

University of Santo Tomas (UST) took advantage of another endgame collapse by University of the Philippines (UP) to hack out a 68-66 victory in the 73rd UAAP men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Growling Tigers, with some help from two unsportsmanlike fouls by the Maroons, went to Aljon Mariano and do-it-all forward Chris Camus before preventing a potential meltdown in the dying seconds to climb up to snap a five-game slide and improve to a 4-7 record. UST forged a tie with idle University of the East for sixth place to revive its fading Final Four hopes. "Nung natalo La Salle sa Ateneo sabi ko lagi nilang tatandaan, may bintanang bumukas at may liwanag na nagpakita sa atin. Ibig sabihin may tsanysa na makapasok ng Final Four pero dapat ayusin muna namin yung team," said coach Pido Jarencio. Mariano and Camus, who finished sixth in the MVP race after the first round, combined for 11 points in the payoff period to finish with 11 markers each. "We're so hungry to win and we should not lost to a winless team like UP," said Mariano, who went 2-of-4 from rainbow country. The España-based cagers trailed 51-45 at the end of the third and 58-54 with 5:57 to go before Mariano uncorked a triple that cut the deficit to one. Then, UST drew a lucky break when center Magi Sison was called for an unsportsmanlike foul with Paulo Pe splitting his charities to tie the game then Camus scored a go-ahead lay up for a 60-58 count. Camus added two more free throws after getting elbowed by Mark Juruena that extended the lead to four that eventually became a 65-58 spread with 2:41 left. But the Diliman-based squad made a final comeback behind consecutive treys by returning cagers Mike Silungan and Alvin Padilla to move within one, 67-66. However, the latter's trey came at 0.6 seconds left and a desperation foul on Jeric Teng came at the buzzer. Teng, who split his charities for the final tally, made 17 points to go with his six rebounds and two assists as UST kept UP winless after 12 games. Padilla, who returned from a one-game suspension, and teammates Martin Reyes and Carlo Gomez had 12 points each for the Maroons, who have lost 16 consecutive games dating back to Season 72. Sison, who sat under the baseline goal after the game perhaps in sheer frustration of enduring another defeat, tallied eight points, nine rebounds and four shot blocks. – JVP, GMANews.TV