Archers escape Warriors despite turnover woes

MANILA, Philippines – Defending champion La Salle bucked an erratic game to grind what coach Juno Sauler described as a "lucky"  60-58 win over University of the East Sunday in the UAAP Season 77 men's basketball tourney at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Green Archers wasted a lot of possessions in the face of stifling full-court press of UE with a whopping 36 turnovers, but still found a way to turn the game around from 10 points down and emerge victorious in the end.

"We were lucky to pull this one through with 36 turn overs," said Sauler whose team surrendered 19 points to UE off their miscues.

La Salle improved to 2-2 after dropping its first two assignments while the Warriors got their first loss in three starts.

The Archers still trailed by nine at 41-50 going to the last 8:05 but unleashed a furious fightback spearheaded by Jeron Teng and rookie Prince Rivero to claw their way back and steal the W.

Teng rifled in seven of his game-high 18 points in the payoff and found a sparring partner in forward Rivero, who gamely filled in for the fouled out Jason Perkins and Arnold van Opstal  and scored all of his eight points in the clutch.

"They defended well in the fourth quarter, I think we gave up 12 points (to UE). That was big, that made the difference," said Sauler.

Roi Sumang punched in 16 to lead UE but he bungled his potential game-tying attempt near the end.

"We knew they were going to press and that's what we tried to focus on during practice. We didn't do a good job against their press with 36 turnovers," said Sauler.

Teng also grabbed six rebounds and issued four assists, the last of which was converted by Rivero for a 60-56 cushion for La Salle with 44.1 seconds left.

"In the end we just tried to look for the open man. On my part, I just tried to create and found Prince open," said Teng.

Rivero also had five boards in 14 minutes of exposure.

"We needed Prince because Arnold and Jason fouled out," said Sauler, admitting to acceding to "gut feel" in fielding in Rivero in the endgame.