Archers dismantle Maroons, keep lead

La Salle flirted with disaster against hard-fighting University of the Philippines before scoring a 71-67 victory yesterday as the Archers kept their unbeaten slate in the 65th UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Makati Coliseum.

Slowed down by the Maroons’ solid defense early in the final quarter, the Archers came through with their own defensive gems in the closing minutes. It was the fifth straight win for La Salle, which moved two wins away from a first-round sweep.

The Maroons, who had hoped to beat La Salle a week after stopping highly-fancied Ateneo, took a 62-61 lead with four minutes to play, but failed to finish off their opponents in absorbing their third loss against two victories.

Joseph Yeo, slowly trying to fill in the shoes of Ren Ren Ritualo, rose to the occasion after the Maroons grabbed the lead and threatened to score another upset. Yeo scored four unanswered points, including a triple, to bail the Archers out of trouble.

"He’s been hitting those kind of shots for us, but the key here was our crucial defensive gems down the stretch," said winning coach Franz Pumaren, who is eyeing a fifth straight crown for the school he played for during his college days.

Michael Bravo of UP exploded for 24 points but was hardly a factor down the stretch. He also failed to draw the needed support from his teammates, none of whom finishing in double figures.

Pumaren was slapped a technical foul for arguing with the referees late in the third quarter, allowing the Maroons to take the 62-61 edge.

The Archers were lucky to have escaped with the victory after hitting only 25 of 65 attempts.

In the other game, University of the East drew firepower from its top three players to get past Far Eastern U, 65-58, and move to solo second with a 4-2 record. The Tamaraws, off to their worst start in years, fell to 1-5.