UNBE-LEE-VABLE

MANILA, Philippines - University of the East leaned on a strong second-half effort by Paul Lee as it shocked a Mark Barroca-less Far Eastern U, 84-74, yesterday and forced a winner-take-all match in their Final Four duel in the 72nd UAAP season at the Araneta Coliseum.

The winner between FEU, which carried a twice-to-beat advantage, and UE will advance to the finals against either Ateneo, the No. 1 team in the elims, and UST. The Eagles will go straight to the finals if they beat the Tigers today at the Big Dome.

Lee exploded with 22 of his career-high 26 points in the second half, unloading a barrage of triples in the fourth quarter as the Warriors lived to face the Tamaraws anew on Thursday and shoot for a slot in the best-of-three finals.

Coach Lawrence Chongson credit their Warriors’ recent success to the unorthodox, “free-flowing” style he implemented since he replaced Dindo Pumaren early this year.

“Actually we’ve been doing these things since I took over, but people just always find ways to frown on what we’re doing when we were losing,” said Chongson, whose charges are now on a seven-game streak.

Chongson was all praises for his talented guard whom he assigned as the center of his unconventional system.

“I’ve been with him for almost a year and I’ve seen those shots time and time again from him. Maybe it came at a special time because our backs are against the wall, it’s really perfect timing,” he added.

It also helped that Barroca was not allowed to play.

“Actually, I’ve prepared for FEU. Remember we beat them by 15 points in the second round with Barroca. I salute Barroca but then again I will not allow one player to beat us,” said Chongson.

It also didn’t help that veteran guard Jens Knuttel pulled a hamstring during the game and that Cameroonian rookie Pipo Noundou played with a hurting ankle.

“The team played well, our defense against Paul Lee in the first half was okay but we couldn’t stop him after that, he really hit many triples,” said FEU mentor Glenn Capacio in Filipino. “I’m satisfied with how we played. Defensively, we have to adjust.

“He (Barroca) is a big loss of course since he’s really in our rotation plus the fact that we lost Jens (Knuttel) – that punched a bigger hole in our guard rotation and Pipo (Noundou) played only 60-70 percent,” he added.

At first, the game was a virtual shooting match between FEU’s Paul Sanga and UE’s Val Acuña, who buried six and five triples, respectively.

That’s when Lee, on his third season, decided to join the fun by torching the Warriors with six triples in the second half including five in the pivotal fourth quarter.

The Tams seized a four-point lead twice early in the third period, the last at 50-46 when Sanga buried a triple but Lee ignited a 16-5 blast with an eight-point splurge to go into the final canto with a 62-55 advantage.

Sanga, who finished with his league best 22 points, wasn’t finished as he lit another blistering run that gave FEU a 72-71 upper hand with a little over five minutes remaining.

And then Lee found his rhythm again and unloaded eight of his team’s last 10 points to power the Warriors to the win.

“We practiced last night (Friday) and I really concentrated on my shooting, I’m glad I made the big shots in this game,” said Lee, a former San Sebastian high school standout.

Sanga finished with a team high 22 points while RR Garcia and Aldrech Ramos, a Smart Gilas Pilipinas veteran like Barroca, had 16 and 12 points, respectively.

But with Barroca-who averaged a team-high 12.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.6 steals--out, Knuttel sidelined and Noundou ailing, Capacio had to dig deep but just came short.