Archers upstage Pirates in fight-marred encounter

MANILA, Philippines - La Salle outmuscled Lyceum in a highly physical, fight-marred contest and eked out a 70-64 victory to keep its unbeaten run in Group B in the Filoil Flying V Premier Cup at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

The Archers used their height and heft advantage over the smaller Pirates and pounded the lanes with impunity, gaining a league-record 56 free throws, making 37 of them with Jeron Teng hitting all but two of his 15 attempts from the line for a 19-point output.

The Pirates committed 36 fouls while trying to stop the Archers. John Azores, Shaq Alanes, Vergel Evangelista, Daniel Garcia and Mark Francisco fouled out.

La Salle’s Norbert Torres shoved Jeremiah Taladua, who gave a driving Gabriel Reyes a hard foul in a transition play, sparking a bench-clearing incident and a near-brawl.

Taladua and Torres were assessed a flagrant foul each while La Salle’s bench was slapped a technical foul for improper bench decorum. 

Lyceum’s Azores, Shaq Alanes and Wilson Baltazar and La Salle’s Arnold Van Opstal, Robert Bollick and Mat Salem were ejected for storming to the court.

The victory stretched La Salle’s run to four, moving closer to archrival Ateneo (6-1).

“It’s a good game for us because we were tested in a physical game,” said La Salle coach Gee Abanilla. “In everything we prepare we want to compete, but mentally, we weren’t there on this game.”

Earlier, Aljon Mariano sizzled with 13 points in the fourth quarter as he powered University of Santo Tomas to an 83-79 squeaker over a stubborn San Sebastian side for a 2-2 slate.

Trailing by a point entering the last period, the Tigers went to Mariano, who stepped up to carry the Tigers to the scrambling win.