Archers rally from 15 down, rip Eagles

MANILA, Philippines – Josh Torralba and Jeron Teng struck hard in the stretch as La Salle rallied from 15 points down to prevail over arch rival Ateneo, 80-76, in the UAAP Season 78 men’s basketball tournament before roaring 17,738 fans at the MOA Arena yesterday.

Torralba knocked it down from the corner to give La Salle the upperhand, then Teng took care of business at the line to put the finishing touches to the hard-earned win, their fourth in seven outings in the first round.

The victory propelled DLSU to a share of third with the Eagles.

The Eagles stormed to a 35-20 tear early in the second and went into the break still in command at 46-36. But the Archers tightened up on defense in the next 20 minutes, holding AdMU to 30 markers while Jason Perkins, Thomas Torres and Prince Rivero delivered on offense to lead their fightback.

“It’s just really the boys putting out their efforts on defense,” said DLSU coach Juno Sauler. “What really got us back into the game was our defense. In our losses, we couldn’t really play well on defense but today (yesterday), they showed they could play on that end in the second half.”

With Chibueze Ikeh scoring inside, AdMU took a 76-74 cushion going to the final 1:27. After a series of unproductive thrusts, the Archers set up Torralba for a corner heave that went in, handing them a one-point lead.

“He’s been working on that three in practice and it paid dividends,” said Sauler of Torralba, who made two of his nine tries from beyond the arc.

Teng cashed in on his charities off Gwyne Capacio to stretch the lead to 79-76 then defended against Kiefer Ravena, who missed his potential game-tying trey. Torralba split his free throws for the final count.

Torralba finished with nine to backstop Teng (18), Thomas Torres (15), Perkins (13) and Rivero (10 points, 10 rebounds).

Ravena wound up with 19 points while Ikeh had 13 markers and 13 rebounds.