A day after being walloped by the UC-Irvine Anteaters, the De La Salle University Green Archers were dealt with another loss, absorbing a 77-88 loss to Russia-select, Friday evening at the Student Gymnasium in Seoul, South Korea.
La Salle fell to a tie for third with Japan-select with 2-2 slates in the 2018 Asia Pacific University Basketball Challenge. The Green Archers need to defeat hosts Yonsei University on Saturday, August 11 to keep their podium hopes alive.
Aljun Melecio paced La Salle with 17 points while Taane Samuel anchored the defense with 15 points and nine rebounds.
However, the young Russians were able to make a strong third quarter push to go up by nine entering the final frame.
Though La Salle was able to get in their flow in the last 10 minutes of the game, the Russians were able to counter at every moment to seal the win.
La Salle skipper Kib Montalbo added 12 points and six steals.
Egorov had 22 points for Russia-select, a team composed of some of the best players in their league Association of Student Basketball.
The Scores:
DLSU 77 – Melecio 17, Samuel 15, Montalbo 12, Baltazar 9, Santillan 8, Serrano 8, Go 6, Bates 2.
Russia 85 – Egorov 22, Kazlou 16, Krivykh 14, Pluzhnikov 12, Popov 8, Laptev 5, Bobrovskikh 4, Kiselev 2, Novoselov 2.
Quarterscores: 20-26, 42-45, 62-71, 77-85.
