Behind the backcourt tandem of Andrei Caracut and Aljun Melecio, the De La Salle University Green Archers romped Tsinghua University, 103-86, to open their BLIA Cup title defense, Tuesday afternoon at the Kaohsiung Arena in Taiwan.
After a slow start, Filipino-Aussie Brandon Bates provided the spark for the Green Archers in the first half, scoring 10 of his 12 points during that frame. He had seven rebounds as well.
With Bates operating on the inside, Caracut and Melecio teamed up on the outside in a huge 38-point second quarter for the Green Archers.
Caracut had 18 points in the contest, while Melecio finished with 17 markers, spiked by five treys.
Qi Lin tried to rally Tsinghua back in the third frame, but the tall La Salle frontline of Bates, Justine Baltazar, Taane Samuel, and Mark Dyke was able to seal off the Beijing-based squad.
Baltazar had 12 points as well. Samuel and Dyke finished with 11 and 10 points respectively.
La Salle were without Kib Montalbo in the contest. Santi Santillan, on the other hand, played just six minutes as he is still recovering from an injury.
The Green Archers will next face Nagoya Gakuin University on Wednesday, July 4 at 2:00pm.
The Scores:
DLSU 103 – Caracut 18, Melecio 17, Baltazar 12, Bates 12, Samuel 11, Go 11, Dyke 10, Lim 4, Manuel 1, Manaytay 1, Santillan 0.
Tsinghua 86 – Qi 27, Wang 18, Liu 13, Ma 11, Yang 10, Zeng 3, Han 2, Zhong 2, Hu 0, Li 0, Zheng 0, Ding 0.
Quarterscores: 16-25, 54-40, 77-66, 103-86.
