Loyal fan bases always wanted a blowout, a decisive win that blasts the other team out of the water. For a while in the opening quarter, it started to feel like that after Kevin Quiambao and his streak shooting Archers were pummeling the UST Tigers with a 20-point lead.
Instead, the defending champions were dragged into a thrilling showdown that tested their championship mettle. Ultimately, DLSU managed to fend off a fierce comeback from the UST Tigers in regulation, miraculously went into overtime, and emerged victorious with a final score of 94-87.
The game was a pure rollercoaster, with La Salle initially building a 20-point lead and almost letting it slip away.
This acid test showcased Taft’s brand of resilience resulting from the bitter lessons learned from previous encounters.
And while La Salle was cruising, UST was slowly crushing the lead one possession at a time with Nic Cabanero’s abusing the Archers’ interior defense.
After regulation ended tied at 80-all, the Green Archers unleashed an 11-1 scoring run, clinching the victory with a commanding 91-81 lead with just 1:53 left in the extra period. Kevin Quiambao spearheaded the effort with an impressive 29 points and 9 rebounds, while Mike Phillips contributed a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds, providing the offensive firepower necessary to secure the win.
La Salle started the game like a house on fire, blitzing the UST Sleeping Tigers with a staggering 14-0 run in the first four and a half minutes. At this juncture, Quiambao was on fire, scoring 10 points during the opening ambush and leaving UST coughing in the dust of that blistering first-quarter run while scrambling on defense.
That torrid Quiambao three-point shooting was contagious, as Henry Agunanne and Doy Dungo added to the three-point scoring spree, pushing the lead to 21-6.
Matching their shooting touch with defensive tenacity, La Salle dominated at one point in the first half, shooting 56.5% from the field and 53.8% from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, UST struggled, hitting only 27.6% of their shots from the field and a dismal 16.2% from three-point range. The Green Archers’ defense was so suffocating that it only allowed just two assists, making it a nightmare for UST’s offense to get anything going.
However, as the game wore on, the Green Archers seemed to play not-to-lose, allowing UST to growl back into contention. Nic Cabanero led the charge for UST, bringing the Tigers back within single digits at 65-56 by the end of the third quarter.
And the Tigers were not done. Sensing vulnerability, UST went for the Archer kill in the final two minutes, capitalizing on La Salle turnovers.
In the final seconds of regulation, with the score tied at 80, Fortsky Padrigao had a chance to steal the W but back-rimmed his second shot. Despite UST’s last-ten seconds efforts to seize the win, two long-range attempts failed to find the net, sending the game into overtime.
The Green Archers finished with a team total of 94 points, shooting 43.5% from the field and 40.0% from three-point range. Their bench played a crucial role, contributing 41 points to the total. In contrast, UST struggled with a shooting percentage of 39.2%, despite Cabanero’s standout performance of 23 points and 12 rebounds.
As La Salle prepares for their next matchup against Adamson on Saturday, they’ll carry with them the lessons learned from this hard-fought victory, reminding themselves that true championship resilience often shines brightest in the face of adversity.
