ADAMSON University closed in on notching top seed in the UAAP Season 85 High School Boys’ Basketball Tournament, stifling win-hungry De La Salle-Zobel, 66-52, Wednesday at the Filoil Ecooil Centre.
The Baby Falcons raised their slate to 11-1 — remaining a full game ahead of Far Eastern University-Diliman and Nazareth School of National University.
Meanwhile — just like archrival Ateneo High School (4-8), the Junior Archers (4-8) must sweep their last two outings and hope that University of Santo Tomas (6-6) loses their games just to force a playoff for the last Final Four spot.
Heading into the game, Baby Falcons head coach Mike Fermin knew that De La Salle-Zobel was hungry to snap the three-game skid they were in.
“Going into this game, we are trying to limit the scoring of the opponent to under 50. This game, yun lang ang goal namin,” said Fermin.
“Hats off to Zobel dahil ang ganda ng gameplan at execution nila. They shot well and played good defense. Sabi ko nung halftime, we just had to toughen up,” added the former men’s and women’s basketball head coach of Adamson.
Midway through the final frame, the Baby Falcons clung to just a 54-48 lead before the Junior Archers caved into the pressure.
Back-to-back turnovers by Shad Chang and Kieffer Alas led to baskets for Peter Rosillo and Vince Reyes, respectively.
Reyes and Matt Edding continued to ride the momentum, extending the Adamson lead to 62-48 with 3:03 remaining.
The Junior Archers could not recover from there, suffering their fourth straight loss.
“Bad game. Nanalo lang siguro kami dahil sa turnovers nila e,” said Rosillo, who led Adamson with 18 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists.
Edding tallied 14 points, eight rebounds, and five steals while Reyes added 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Rhyle Melencio was once again the sole bright spot for Zobel, producing 21 points, 13 rebounds, and four blocks. Alas also notched a double-double with 11 rebounds and 10 points but he needed 16 field goal attempts to reach double-digits.
Earlier, FEU-D — just like NSNU in the second game of the day — kept their top two hopes alive, soundly beating also-ran University of the Philippines Integrated School, 81-67.
The Baby Tamaraws and the Bullpups are knotted in the standings at 10-2.
“Ang ganda ng nilaro nila compared to first round namin. Ang ganda ng adjustments nila,” said FEU-D head coach Allan Albano, recalling the 97-59 beatdown they gave the same team in the first round.
“Di kami naka-adjust sa zone defense nila kaya kailangan namin balikan yung zone offense namin,” he continued.
Luke Felipe led the way for FEU-D with 24 points built on four triples while JR Pasaol scattered 12 points, eight assists, five rebounds, and four steals.
VJ Pre finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, logging the most minutes for any Baby Tamaraw in the contest at 24 minutes.
Kobe Demisana and Jonas Napalang were once again the only sources of offense for the Fighting Maroons. The former got 21 points, 19 rebounds, and six blocks while the latter put up 20 markers.
UPIS suffered its 10th straight loss.
The Scores:
Third Game:
FEU-D 81 – Felipe 24, Pasaol 12, Pre 12, Mongcopa 11, Daa 8, Cabonilas 6, Miranda 3, Pascual 3, Burgos 2, Salangsang 0, Cabigting 0, Maierhofer 0, Herbito 0, Baricaua 0, Castillejos 0.
UPIS 67 – Demisana 21, Napalang 20, Villaverde 9, Gomez de Liano 6, Raymundo 5, Melicor 3, Florentino 3.
Quarterscores: 26-17, 44-30, 59-44, 81-67.
Fourth Game:
AdU 66 – Rosillo 18, Edding 14, Reyes 12, Bonzalida 9, Carillo 6, Medina 3, Sajili 2, Culdora 2, Abayon 0, Mepana 0, Perez 0.
DLSZ 52 – Melencio 21, Alas 10, Dimaano 8, Chang 6, Espina 4, Pabellano 2, John 0, Legaspi 0, Cruz 0, Dimalanta 0, Dionisio 0, Sta. Mario 0.
Quarterscores: 10-13, 29-26, 49-40, 66-52.
