De La Salle University hacked out a 65-58 victory over Far Eastern University, Saturday morning in the UAAP Season 85 women’s basketball tournament at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Down by 10 after back-to-back conversions by the Lady Archers, the Lady Tamaraws unloaded eight unanswered points to inch within two with 4:50 to go in the final frame, 54-56.
But Charmine Torres, Lee Sario, and Fina Niantcho responded for La Salle with an 8-1 surge to put the game away with 30.1 ticks left, 64-55.
“I thought we had a grind-out game. We needed this kind of win because ‘yung last game we won by a blowout. This is a character win for us,” said Lady Archers head coach Cholo Villanueva.
Niantcho finished with a huge double-double of 16 points and 19 rebounds, while Torres had 16 points and eight rebounds.
Sario, who hit the dagger triple with 1:08 left, had nine points as well.
“There’s really no superstar for us. The superstar here is the system,” added Villanueva, who saw different players stepping up in their four victories.
The Lady Archers stretched their winning streak to three to improve to 4-1, good for second, while the Lady Tamaraws absorbed their third consecutive loss to drop to 1-4 at seventh.
Danica Pacia had 16 points and nine rebounds in the losing effort while senior Camille Taguiam was limited to just 3-of-15 shooting to end with 13 points, eight rebounds, and four assists against eight turnovers.
La Salle will next battle powerhouse National University on Wednesday at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion. FEU faces the Growling Tigresses in the quadruple header as well.
The Scores:
La Salle 65 – Niantcho 16, Torres 16, Sario 9, Binaohan 8, Ahmed 6, Arciga 5, Dalisay 3, Jimenez 2, Dela Paz 0, Espinas 0, Camba 0.
FEU 58 – Pacia 16, Taguiam 13, Go 9, Obien 9, Delos Santos 5, Jumuad 4, Cunanan 2, Paras 0, Salvani 0, Aquino 0.
Quarterscores: 22-20, 40-35, 52-46, 65-58.
