Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The De La Salle University Green Archers trounced University of the Philippines, 78-72, on Saturday afternoon at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Coming off an injury, team captain Jeron Teng managed to produce a game-high 21 points and five rebounds.
The Fighting Maroons had no answer to La Salle’s suffocating defense in the opening salvo, which resulted to a couple of miscues.
With the gusty UP side playing aggressively on both ends of the floor, the Green Archers were unable to take a comfortable headway going to halftime break as it diminished to a single digit, 41-34.
After having a lackluster performance in the first two quarters, Mbala made his presence felt down low to keep the Diliman-based squad at bay.
Aljun Melecio’s fastbreak three-pointer midway at the final canto proved to be the turning point as it stretched the lead to a dozen, 64-52.
DLSU remains undefeated at 9-0, while UP snapped its two-game winning streak to slide down to 3-7.
Top MVP contender Ben Mbala had another monster outing with 17 points and 20 rebounds.
Paul Desiderio led the way for the Fighting Maroons with 16 points, while Jett Manuel and rookie Javier Gomez De Liaño added 13 and 11 respectively.
Head coach Aldin Ayo and his wards will next tackle the National University on October 19 (Wednesday) at the Filoil Arena.
The scores:
La Salle (78) — Teng 21, Mbala 17, Torres 13, Melecio 9, R. Rivero 8, P. Rivero 4, Montalbo 3, Caracut 2, Tratter 0, Perkins 0, Baltazar 0, Go 0.
UP (72) — Desiderio 16, Manuel 13, Gomez De Liano 11, Lim 8, Moralde 7, Harris 4, Prado 4, Lao 4, Espanloa 3, Dario 2, Webb 0, Romero 0, Vito 0, Jaboneta 0.
Quarterscores: 25-14; 41-34; 55-48; 78-72.
