University of Santo Tomas weathered a season-high outing from Josee Kaputu, romping past also-ran Far Eastern University, 106-85, to stay in the twice-to-beat hunt of the UAAP Season 86 Women’s Basketball Tournament on Wednesday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The Growling Tigresses, who extended their streak to three, improved their record to 10-3 in second place.
They are half a game ahead of the UP Fighting Maroons; and half a game behind league leaders NU Lady Bulldogs, who lead the standings at 11-1.
UP will face the already-eliminated UE Lady Warriors later in the day.
UST can either clinch or force a playoff for the second post-season incentive against Ateneo de Manila University this Saturday at 9:00 AM at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
“We need to win one more game versus Ateneo,” said Tigresses head coach Haydee Ong.
“It’s very crucial for all the teams in the Final Four who are vying for a twice-to-beat advantage because UP, Ateneo, and UST have a very big chance of having the twice-to-beat advantage. So we wanted to prepare for Ateneo for Saturday and hopefully, we’ll get the twice-to-beat advantage,” the former national team head coach continued.
And the Growling Tigresses survived a standout outing from FEU’s Congolese big Kaputu, who had a season-high 37 points to go along with her 15 rebounds.
The previous season-high was Ateneo de Manila University guard Jhazmin Joson’s 32-point output against Adamson University seven days ago.
“Kaputu is one of the best foreign student-athletes in the league. Sabi ko lang sa kanila, we cannot let Kaputu shoot from inside and other players shoot from the three points,” Ong shared.
Kailangan lang mamili kami whether inside or outside yung dedepensahan namin. I think nung third quarter yun yung nangyari and we adjusted nung last quarter.”
Eka Soriano’s three-point shot gave UST its biggest lead at 65-43 at the 7:19 mark of the third quarter.
Then FEU slowly got itself back in the game to make things interesting.
Kaputu, Jaina Del Prado, Mikee Antonio, Julie Manguiat, and Nicole Cabahug persevered to trim the deficit to just 12 points before the start of the final frame.
Kaputu and Del Prado then combined to slice it further to 82-73 with 7:01 remaining in the contest but that was as good as it got for the Lady Tamaraws.
Tantoy Ferrer, Nikka Villasin, and Brigitte Santos iced the game for the Growling Tigresses by erecting a 96-76 cushion with only 2:45 left.
Santos led UST with 20 points, seven assists, six steals, and four rebounds while Ferrer and Villasin scored 15 points each.
Agatha Bron and Kent Pastrana also contributed 13 and 11 points respectively for the Growling Tigresses and Tacky Tacatac had 10 points.
Manguiat and Del Prado, supported Kaputu, chipping in 16 and 15 points respectively for FEU.
The Lady Tamaraws suffered its fifth straight loss and dropped to a 3-10 slate.
FEU will look to end its season with a win against fellow also-ran Adamson University this Sunday at 9:00 AM at the SM Mall of Asia Arena to end its campaign on a high note.
The Scores:
UST 106 – Santos 20, Ferrer 15, Villasin 15, Bron 13, Pastrana 11, Tacatac 10, Dionisio 7, Maglupay 6, Soriano 5, Amatong 2, Ambos 1, Serrano 1, Ly 0.
FEU 85 – Kaputu 37, Manguiat 16, Del Prado 15, Salvani 8, Ong 3, Nagma 2, Cabahug 2, Antonio 2, Aquino 0, Delos Santos 0, Pasilang 0, Paras 0, Lopez 0, Caringal 0, Dela Torre 0.
Quarterscores: 29-19, 58-39, 78-66, 106-85.
