UE head coach Derrick Pumaren finally has his first win of the season. And it was the sweetest of wins, as it came at the expense of his younger brother Franz Pumaren.
The University of the East Red Warriors ended their first round campaign on a high note, stunning the young Adamson University Soaring Falcons, 64-57, Sunday afternoon at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
“I feel bad for Franz but we had to get a win. We just had to win this ball game,” said the elder Pumaren.
Rookie Alvin Pasaol lifted the Red Warriors with 13 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. Senior RR de Leon added 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
“Sobrang saya namin kasi first win namin ito. Pinaghirapan namin ito,” Pasaol said. “Past few games, wala kaming close out pero napatunayan namin na kaya namin magsara ng laro.”
The Soaring Falcons were up by as many as 13 points, 36-23, during the second quarter, and were even up by 11 midway through the third frame. But unlike their past six games, the Red Warriors did not cave in.
Behind Pasaol and De Leon, the Red Warriors went on a 19-3 rally, holding the Soaring Falcons to zero field goals during the first 6:49 of the final frame.
“We have not played to our full potential. The battle cry was to play the game for 40 minutes,” Pumaren said. “We played well against La Salle but we did not play for 40 minutes.”
“I reminded them that we have to keep playing, we have to keep fighting.”
An excellent find by Bonbon Batiller to Pasaol gave UE their breakthrough lead of the game, 47-45, with 8:35 left. As the Red Warriors were making their rally, the young Falcons were clearly rattled, committing a number of turnovers and forcing shots.
A miss by Robbie Manalang was cleaned up by Jonathan Espeleta to give Adamson their first field goal of the quarter, but UE’s lead had already ballooned to seven, 57-50, with three minutes left in the game.
Having never experienced this situation before, the Falcons continued to commit turnover after turnover in the last few seconds of the game. Free throws by Philip Manalang sealed the breakthrough win for the Recto squad.
“It was a hard earned victory for us. When we were up by five or six in the last minute, I told my boys that there’s nothing to celebrate yet. We have to close out the game and finally we did so,” shared a relieved Pumaren.
The UE press was able to force 23 turnovers from Adamson that led to a 15-to-9 turnover points advantage. This helped negate the horrid 32.5 percent shooting clip they had.
Papi Sarr led the Soaring Falcons wit 13 points and 25 rebounds. Ahanmisi added 10 points, five rebounds, and five dimes.
The UE Red Warriors end their first round campaign with a 1-6 slate. On the other hand, the Adamson Soaring Falcons (3-3) will play their final game of the first round on Wednesday, October 5, against the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers (2-4) at 2:00pm.
The Scores:
UE (64) – Pasaol 13, De Leon 12, Batiller 9, Manalang 7, Varilla 5, Bartolome 5, Olayon 5, Palma 2, Charcos 2, Penuela 2, Derige 2, Abanto 0.
ADU (57) – Sarr 13, Ahanmisi 10, Manganti 8, Espeleta 6, Manalang 5, Ochea 5, Tungcab 5, Bernardo 3, Camacho 2, Mustre 0, Pasturan 0, Ng 0.
Quarterscores: 7-14, 21-30, 40-45, 64-57.
