De La Salle University finally entered the UAAP Season 86 Women’s Basketball win column by narrowly defeating Adamson University, 63-55, on Wednesday at the Adamson University Gym.
Lee Sario scored 20 points, five of which came in the payoff period, to lead the Lady Archers, who put an end to a three-game losing streak to start the season.
In her first three games, Sario had averaged 7.6 points.
“Even when Lee was struggling in the first three games, she still kept on working,” said Lady Archers head coach Cholo Villanueva. “Her value comes from her work. It’s just going to be a certain amount of time that all her hard work will be paying off.
“She didn’t stop working even though she was having a bad game. She was working hard to work on her game.”
Sario and Luisa San Juan sank back-to-back threes, giving La Salle a commanding 59-51 lead with just over four minutes left in the game, after leading by just three points earlier.
Bernice Paraiso and Luisa San Juan then made their free throws, sealing the game for La Salle at 62-55 with 23.5 seconds remaining. Before that, Adamson had closed the gap to 60-55 between both players’ shots from the free-throw line.
“It’s a good small step to where we want to go this year,” said Villanueva. “Again, this is a rebuilding team. It’s about development and after losing three games, we learned things from those games and now we got our first win.”
Paraiso had her best game since returning to the Lady Archers with 11 points and four rebounds, while Betts Binaohan contributed 10 points, five rebounds, and three steals.
La Salle’s foreign student-athlete Aji Bojang grabbed 12 rebounds.
The Lady Archers’ bench players played a crucial role, scoring 43 points compared to the Lady Falcons’ 32.
La Salle will aim to upset the defending champions, National University, this Sunday at 9:00 AM at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, in a rematch of last year’s finals.
Ann Dampios led the Lady Falcons with 16 points, while Victoria Adeshina had 12 points and seven rebounds. Kim Limbago contributed nine points and 10 rebounds for Adamson.
Adamson will seek to end its four-game losing streak against the University of the East this Sunday at 11:00 AM at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The Scores:
DLSU 63 – Sario 20, Paraiso 11, Binaohan 10, Mendoza 6, San Juan 5, Delos Reyes 4, Dela Paz 3, Dalisay 2, Villava-Cua 2, Bojang 0.
AdU 55 – Dampios 16, Adeshina 12, Limbago 9, Padilla 7, Alaba 7, Etang 4, Apag 0, Agojo 0, Bajo 0, Meniano 0, Tano 0, Cortez 0.
Quarterscores: 18-14, 34-32, 48-46, 63-55.
