University of the Philippines arrested its two-game slide in the UAAP Season 85 Women’s Basketball Tournament, dominating the winless University of the East, 66-42, Wednesday at University of Santo Tomas’ Quadricentennial Pavillion.
Coming off back-to-back losses to National University last Wednesday and Ateneo de Manila University, the Fighting Maroons badly needed a win, according to head coach Paul Ramos, as they won’t fall behind in the standings as the first round closes this week.
“Very important. As we all know, the standings are shaping up and we are beginning to see who will be battling it out for the second, third, and fourth spots. Obviously, we are vying for one of those spots so every win matters for us,” said Ramos as the win put them up to an even 3-3 slate — half-a-game ahead of Ateneo, who will face Adamson University later in the day.
“We wanted to win that game against Ateneo but we didn’t. Moving forward, every win counts heading into the second round. We all know that the magic number is eight wins so we are trying to get to that,” continued Ramos, recalling their 67-61 loss to the Blue Eagles last Sunday.
A strong start paved the way for the comfortable win for the Fighting Maroons, going off on a 25-5 first quarter.
During the first 10 minutes of play, junior Erika Jimenez outscored the entire Lady Warriors team all by her lonesome, dropping nine of her 11 points during that spurt.
“Ang masasabi ko lang is team effort ito. Credit talaga sa teammates namin na dumepensa para maka-shoot kami,” said Jimenez, a native of Cavite.
The Fighting Maroons did not let up the rest of the way with the lead ballooning to 39 points in the third canto.
Stiff Larrosa also got 11 points to go along with eight rebounds for UP while Marielle Vingno and Maian Domingo added 10 points apiece.
“I wanted to play some of our players to give them confidence. Some of our players, hindi pa nakakabuwelo from the past few games so we wanted to give them an opportunity para mag-gain ng confidence against UST this weekend,” said Ramos.
UE, who fell to 0-6, was led by Kamba Kone with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
UE shot just 27.8-percent from the field and committed 38 turnovers that led to 27 UP points.
The Scores:
UP 66 – Larrosa 11, Jimenez 11, Vingno 10, Domingo 10, Maw 7, Sanchez 7, Bariquit 6, Tapawan 2, Rivera 2, Pesquera 0, Gonzales 0, Sauz 0, Lebico 0, Lozada 0.
UE 42 – Kone 13, Paule 6, Anastacio 5, Silva 4, Lorena 4, Terrinal 3, Caraig 2, Sajol 2, Gervacio 2, Nama 1, Dela Rosa 0, Delig 0, Tinio.
Quarterscores: 25-5, 38-11, 54-25, 66-42.
