Third-ranked University of the Philippines stormed back from a 20-point hole in the second quarter before leaning on Louna Ozar in overtime to disarm second seed University of Santo Tomas of its twice-to-beat advantage, 88-80, in the UAAP Season 86 Women’s Basketball Final Four on Wednesday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
The rubber match is scheduled for Saturday morning at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“We’ll celebrate this today but back to work tomorrow kasi lahat ito will not make sense if one Saturday we don’t show up,” said Fighting Maroons head coach Paul Ramos, who was part of the Fighting Maroons squad which made it to the Finals in 2008 despite facing a twice-to-beat disadvantage.
UST was the first to score in OT with a trey by Tantoy Ferrer but Rhea Sanchez answered right back for the last deadlock of the game, 75-75.
From there, Ozar scored six points while Justine Domingo and Kaye Pesquera had two apiece as the Fighting Maroons established a commanding 85-76 lead with 1:54 left.
Kent Pastrana and Brigette Santos responded for the Growling Tigresses with four straight points but Pesquera drilled the dagger three from the right corner with 30.9 ticks to go for the final scoreline.
“It’s all about the support of the team. Everybody cheer each other and this energy [boosts us],” said Filipino-French rookie Ozar, who scored 25 on 10-of-15 shooting from the field to go with three rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block.
The Fighting Maroons fell into a hole of as much as 20 in the second quarter, 25-45, before unleashing 21 unanswered points bridging through the third frame to regain the lead, 46-45, with 7:10 left.
Favour Onoh’s split from the line with 38.6 seconds left in the fourth ultimately sent the game to extra period as Kent Pastrana missed a three pointer from the top of the key that could have given UST the win as time expired.
Onoh, who is celebrating her 18th birthday today, tallied a monstrous line of 14 points and an eye-popping 30 rebounds. She also got four assists, three steals, and two blocks.
Onoh’s 30 rebounds set a UAAP record across all divisions since 2003, when the league began recording stats digitally.
The previous record was shared by Angelo Kouame, who grabbed 27 rebounds in Ateneo’s 82-62 win over FEU on October 20, 2018, and Justine Baltazar, who hauled down the same number of rebounds during NUNS’s 78-58 win over DLSZ on February 19, 2016.
“Today is my birthday, and I dedicate this game to them because it’s a special day today. I’m very much excited that we won this game and also, we should not give up the momentum to face our next game,” said the Nigerian student-athlete, who took a moment before responding, visibly emotional.
Pesquera also added 19 points while Sanchez chipped in 12 points.
Pastrana had 29 points on 11-of-27 clip from the field in the losing cause while also grabbing 11 rebounds, dishing out four assists, and recording four steals.
Tacky Tacatac also delivered 12 points for UST, nine of which came in the first half.
The Scores:
UP 88 – Ozar 25, Pesquera 19, Onoh 14, Sanchez 12, Domingo 9, Tapawan 6, Maw 2, Bariquit 1, Lozada 0, Vingno 0.
UST 80 – Pastrana 29, Tacatac 12, Santos 9, Villasin 9, Ferrer 7, Maglupay 4, Danganan 3, Dionisio 3, Soriano 2, Ambos 2, Bron 0, Ly 0, Serrano 0.
Quarterscores: 21-22, 38-45, 59-54, 72-72, 88-80
