La Salle routs USC in Filoil cagefest

LAPU-LAPU CITY – The De La Salle Green Archers closed out their Cebu leg of the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup with an 82-68 rout of the University of San Carlos Warriors at the Hoops Dome here.

The now 4-1 Green Archers drew sterling performances from Jeron Teng, Almond Vosotros and Julian Sargent, who provided scoring sock for a squad that was missing point guards Kib Montalbo and Thomas Torres who were both in sick bay.

Vosotros opened the game with back-to-back triples giving La Salle an early lead, which one it never relinquished.

USC valiantly tried to come back behind Kiefer Lim, who strung up seven consecutive points to cut DLSU’s lead, 25-24, at the 7:02 mark of the second quarter. But La Salle quickly put some distance behind Cebuano native Oda Tampus for a 31-24 lead.

From a halftime lead of 38-32, La Salle steadily pulled away behind Sargent’s nine points. The Green archers posted as much as a 19-point lead after a Norbert Torres layup, 70-51, with eight minutes to play.

La Salle coasted to its fourth win against one loss.

“It’s a good win but right now, we just want to focus on our next game against Perpetual Help,” said DLSU head coach Juno Sauler, who refused to talk about being in the driver’s seat after the USC triumph and the huge 64-59 win over tough Southwestern University last Saturday. 

“We’ll cross the line when we get there,” he added.

Teng paced La Salle with 18 points while Vosotros and Sargent added 16 and 13 points, respectively.

USC drew its firepower from Ian Ortega, who scored 13 points. Kiefer Lim and Shooster Olago added 11 markers each.

The Warriors, with a 1-5 record, bowed out of their maiden stint in the country’s premier pre-season college tournament.

“Hopefully, we will learn from this experience for our upcoming CESAFI and if we get invited to next year’s Filoil,” said USC head coach Junthy Valenzuela.

The scores

DLSU 82 – Teng 18, Vosotros 16, Sargent 13, Andrada 8, Tampus 7, Van Opstal 4, Tratter 4, Mustre 3, Rivero 2, Torres 2, Dela Paz 2, Perkins 0, Salem 0.

USC 68 – Ortega 13, Olago 11, Lim 11, Oleodo 8, Rabat 7, Ybanez 5, Adlawan 4, Toyambi 4, Magat 3, bensig 2, Egna 0, Laguyo 0.

Quarterscores: 20-17, 38-32, 66-50, 82-68