Archers' rookies snare Eagles

MANILA, Philippines - La Salle, showing up with a potent mix of grizzled veterans and promising rookies, upended arch rival Ateneo, 67-65, in the opening day of the 2009 Filoil-Flying V Pre-Season Manuel V. Pangilinan Cup at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

Veterans Bader Malabes, Maui Villanueva and James Mangahas teamed up with new recruits Tata Marata and Joel Tolentino as they beat out the Eagles in a tupsy-turvy finish, making it two in a row for La Salle over Ateneo in the UAAP off-season.

In their farewell game in La Salle’s green and white jersey, JV Casio and Rico Maierhofer powered the Archers to the championship versus the Eagles in the Champions Cup last December.

“This is just a pre-season game, and everybody’s getting to know each other. Everybody’s trying to get in shape, and the way I look at it, we’re 10 percent better than Ateneo at this point in time,” said La Salle coach Franz Pumaren.

“We’re on a rebuilding process and it’s going to be hard, having just lost our best scorer (Casio) and best rebounder (Maierhofer). We still have a long way to go,” added Pumaren, downplaying their chances for the coming UAAP campaign despite a remarkable run in the off-season.

But Pumaren did express excitement with their new recruits, including four — Marata, Tolentino, Papet Paredes and Gab Banal — from the Nokia RP Youth team that competed in the 2008 FIBA Asia 18-under championship in Iran.

“I can say this is my best batch of recruits since 2003 when we got the group of JV Casio, Ryan Arana and TY Tang. I finished this game with Marata and Tolentino in there. And that’s how I trust these rookies,” Pumaren said.

Both Marata and Tolentino, former stars of the UPIS team, scored six points with the former hitting back-to-back treys that gave the Archers a 62-58 in the last two minutes of play.

The Eagles, playing most of the time with their veterans, had a chance to steal the game but Eric Salamat misfired a potential game-winning three-pointer as time expired.

True to the tradition of the La Salle-Ateneo rivalry, the two teams figured in a highly emotional showdown marred by several hard fouls and near fights.

Ateneo, gearing up for a UAAP title-repeat, got off to a struggling start, going scoreless in the first six and a half minutes of play.

Earlier, Garvo Lanete scored eight of his 23 points in the fourth quarter to lead San Beda to an 85-74 victory over NCAA nemesis Letran.

New San Beda recruit Sudan Daniels made his presence felt, having his contributions in a key run he highlighted with a thunderous jam making it 74-51 for the Lions.

Daniels finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.

“It was good. We were in control the wholegame,” said San Beda coach Frankie Lim.

Jose Rizal U simply outclassed University of the Philippines, 73-58, in the last game.          – With report from Celest Flores/Contributor