Their aim true and their resolve unflinching, the Green Archers shot their way to their second straight victory, cutting down their bitter rivals, the Ateneo Blue Eagles, 69-58, yesterday in the Filoil-Flying V Homegrown Invitational Cup at the packed Philsports Arena.
Steaming their way back to competitive basketball with an eye at regaining glory in the UAAP wars, the Green Archers, powered by Rico Maierhofer, broke away from a close first half, opening several double-digit leads in the third quarter to follow up their opening day win over the Letran Knights.
Ateneo came within six points in the fourth quarter, but La Salle stopped the rally with a clutch trey from JV Casio.
La Salle takes on reigning UAAP champion University of Santo Tomas on Wednesday, a battle between two of the league’s most dominant teams in the past two decades.
The Blue Eagles, meanwhile, absorbed their second straight loss in the tournament backed by Gerry’s Grill, Accel Sports, Millennium Plans, UABS Car Rental Services, Pepsi, Globe Telecommunications, Franz Burger, RJ100, Filpride USA 88 and Nike,
In the women’s game, the Ateneo Lady Eagles defeated the La Salle Lady Archers, 61-52, while the La Salle Greenies upset the Ateneo Blue Eaglets, the defending UAAP champions, 70-69.
The Greenies, fifth in the NCAA tournament, were up, 68-66, with Ateneo in possession, 20 seconds left.
John David Dumrique took the inbounds pass and buried a 3-point shot to give Ateneo a 69-68 lead.
With no timeout left for La Salle-GH, Ralph Liwag raced up court and was fouled by Kevin Gamboa with eight-tenths of a second left, hitting both free throws for the game-winner.
University of the Philippines and Jose Rizal U were still playing at press time in the other collegiate game.