The air has thinned.
You can feel the season tightening its grip, that altitude where every cut, every closeout, every whistle lives on a knife’s edge.
La Salle came in searching for a rebound game. FEU came in fighting for oxygen. When urgency collides like that, you get a rock fight.
FEU owned the first half, throwing sharp, heavy punches on their way to a 36–46 lead. That even stretched to 32–46 at one point— the kind of margin that usually sends a team spiraling.
But not La Salle.
The third quarter cracked differently when Mike Phillips muscled the tempo forward while Doy Dungo lit the fuse. 71–70.
Jonrey Pasaol steadied FEU from the line, 72–71. Earl Abadam rose for a calm, defiant jumper — 73–72 — before Mo Konateh tied it again for FEU by splitting his freethrows.
Then after Abadam, refusing to fade, fought for a second-chance basket, and Pasaol fired back with a triple, 77–80, the fourth quarter took on the shape of a storm.
After Macalalag and Moncopa traded baskets, the entire game swung.
THE key moment.
The hinge.
The flash point.
At 2:20, Jorick Bautista leaned for space on the perimeter — and the whistle cut the air clean. Offensive foul. The kind of call that changes gravity.
The crowd gasped, then roared.
FEU froze.
La Salle saw a door to that 7th win swing open where seconds earlier there was only pressure.
Luis Pablo stepped through it.
First the scoop — 81–82 — soft swish as a whisper. And like a blade finding daylight, Pablo ripped straight through the lane for 83–82.
For a moment, it felt like victory.
This was the peak of La Salle’s fourth-quarter rally — not chaotic, but connected.
Pablo’s burst.
Phillips’ activity.
Macalalag’s movement.
A team clawing back with clarity.
But the closing stretch was brutally unforgiving.
Kirby Mongcopa missed an open three with 1:10 left. Phillips ripped the rebound like it was a lifeline. La Salle fired three times on the ensuing possession — three chances to tilt the outcome — and the rim shrugged every single one off.
Then FEU broke the press. Mongcopa finished. The Tamaraws retook the lead, 83-84.
Gollena tried to answer. Cortez tried to answer. And then came the shot La Salle will replay in their minds — JC Macalalag, corner pocket, clean mechanics, clean look, the ball tracking like destiny.
And then the cruelest sound in basketball:
Rim.
Out.
So, the story ends that abruptly.
FEU survived. La Salle took a tough one on the chin.
Earl Abadam — the lone rifleman who kept the first quarter from collapsing — finished with 18. Macalalag and Mike Phillips tallied 14 each. Pablo added 11, Cortez chipped in 10.
La Salle falls to 6–5, riding a two-game skid with the eliminations tightening and the air growing thinner by the second.
Animo La Salle.
