Close shave by Falcons, Tamaraws

Patrick Tiongco, scoreless in the first 38 minutes of play, drilled in two clutch three-pointers in the homestretch and the Adamson Falcons rose from the grave, stunning the UP Maroons, 61-59, at the close of the first round of eliminations in the 65th UAAP basketball tournament at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum yesterday.

The day of thrillers in the league also saw the Far Eastern Tamaraws nip the National U Bulldogs, 87-85, on a running back shot by Dennis Miranda in the last four seconds.

The Tamaraws ended up with a 2-5 win-loss card while the Bulldogs the lone team without a win to show.

"Patrick is like that. He misses some but he can make the big shots with the game on the line," said coach Luigi Trillo after Tiongco stole the game away from UP, forcing a tie between the Falcons and the Maroons at fifth spot with identical 3-4 win-loss cards.

Tiongco came like a thief in the night at endgame, doing the heist on two treys that wiped out the Maroons’ 57-52 lead in the final minute.

The Maroons actually had a chance to salvage the game in the closing seconds but eventually lost everything with Michael Bravo losing ball possession on a good defense by Mark Abadia.

Tiongco grabbed the looseball but didn’t hurt the Maroons anymore with two missed charities in the final two seconds.

UP sorely missed ace slotman Abe Santos, who was down with an intestinal flu.

Without Santos, UP lost the battle off the boards, yielding 28 offensive rebounds to Adamson. UP, on the other hand, pulled down only 11 offensive caroms.

What proved to be more decisive was the efficient defense the Falcons put up down the stretch, forcing the Maroons to commit costly turnovers.

Adamson came away with a total of 10 steals, four in the homestretch.

Bravo, Xavier Nunag and Josant Cervantes had 14 markers apiece but just could not deliver at crunch time.