Falcons swoop down on Archers in Filoil tiff

MANILA, Philippines – Adamson U relied on its fluid offense to hack out a 83-65 rout of still off-form Dela Salle U for its sixth straight win in the Filoil-Flying V Pre-Season MVP Cup yesterday.

Leo Canuday and rookie Allen Etrone combined for four three-pointers in the last period to finish with 14 and 11 points, respectively, for the red-hot Falcons who warded off every comeback by the Archers to conclude their eliminations tally at 6-1 in Group A.

Fiery guard Jeric Canada and Austin Manera added 23 more to pace the Falcons.

“The game plan was to really dictate the tempo of the game,” said Adamson coach Leo Austria. “Everytime they run, we contain it.”

Adamson posted their biggest lead at 22 points twice in the fourth quarter as the Archers, who stretched their losing skid to two after their return from a three-week training from the US, failed to hit their stride and missed on five straight three pointers until the five-minute mark.

The Archers trailed majority of the contest behind the 11-point losing efforts of Bader Malabes and James Mangahas.

Earlier, National U finally notched its first win over quarterfinals hopeful Mapua, 79-69, before its send-off contest against University of the Philippines next Wednesday.

The Bulldogs, who struggled most of the tournament, used a torrid second half attack to rally back and outgun the Cardinals in the third period on Ajeet Singh and Kokoy Hermosisima’s combined 40 points.

Mapua ended their elimination campaign with a 3-4 slate in Group A.

UP and San Beda were battling it out at presstime.