Archers rally, pierce Eagles’ heart

MANILA, Philippines - La Salle gave Ateneo a bigger headache yesterday, pulling off a come-from-behind 82-73 victory in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Green Archers never gave up after trailing by as many as 14 points in the third quarter. They went on a big run and took a 59-56 lead entering the final quarter.

La Salle never looked back despite a spirited Ateneo stand and won pulling away. It was the second win in three outings for the Green Archers this season.

The last time the Blue Eagles threatened was at 64-66 midway in the final quarter. But they were met by an 8-2 counterpunch and faced an eight-point deficit with 3:16 to go.

In the end, La Salle supporters whooped it up as Ateneo fans settled down. It was a typical Ateneo-La Salle match as close to 16,000 fans that included US Ambassador Harry Thomas packed the cold venue.

Ateneo, which played minus star player Kiefer Ravena, absorbed its third consecutive defeat when for a while yesterday many thought the Blue Eagles had finally found a team to beat this year.

The Blue Eagles were champions the last five years and there was a time they couldn’t lose a game. After three games now, they couldn’t seem to get a win.

It was a bad start for Ateneo and if it loses to host Adamson next Sunday they will duplicate the Blue Eagles’ woeful 0-4 start in 1997.

Since 2008, Ateneo has beaten La Salle 12 times in 13 matches. It looks like times have changed.

“They had their time. Let’s make this time our time,” said Arnold Van Opstal who had 18 points and 13 rebounds for La Salle.

Almond Vosotros led the La Salle scoring with 19 points. Also dishing it out for the Archers were Jeron Teng, Luigi dela Paz, Jason Perkins and Thomas Torres.

The Taft-based squad missed 15 free throws (19-34) and were lucky that the Blue Eagles missed a lot of their three-point attempts (3-of-18).

“We were lucky Ryan Buenafe missed a lot of three-point shots,” said La Salle coach Juno Sauler of the Ateneo forward who went 1-of-7 from beyond the arch.

Christ Newsome was awesome for Ateneo with his 27 points but couldn’t do things alone.

Sauler, a rookie coach for La Salle, said it didn’t really matter if they were playing Ateneo. He said they’re treating each game as important as the rest.

“It’s not who we play. We always need to come out with the same mindset,” he said.

Earlier, Terrence Romeo once again starred for Far Eastern University which romped to its third straight win by crushing University of the Philippines, 75-57.

Romeo kept FEU fans shrieking by scoring 20 points and hauling down a dozen rebounds. He was 4-of-7 from three-point area where the Tamaraws went 9-of-26.