Baby Tams halt Jr Archers winning run

MANILA, Philippines - Far Eastern U snapped La Salle-Zobel’s win run that netted a sweep of the first round, scoring a 62-56 victory in the UAAP juniors basketball tournament at the Blue Eagle gym last weekend.      

The Baby Tamaraws outfoxed the Junior Archers in a tight battle that featured six lead changes and seven deadlocks, pulling off the victory, their sixth against two losses, behind Jerie Pingoy’s 21 points and Joshua Aguilon’s 12 markers.

FEU outrebounded La Salle-Zobel, 57-32, with the Baby Tams pulling down 25 offensive boards, 13 more than their rivals.

Gabriel Reyes led La Salle-Zobel with 15 points, followed by Alexander Torres with 12 points while Renzo Subido chipped in nine points, two rebounds and two assists. Von Kieffer Yu also had nine rebounds for La Salle, which dropped to 7-1.

National U beat three-time defending champion Ateneo, 76-53, in the other game to tie its victim at 5-3.

Rafael Atangan had 22 points and five rebounds, Ralph Tansingco made 16 points and eight rebounds, Ralph Napa scored 11 points and Paolo Rivero had 17 rebounds for the Bullpups.

Tomas Ramos led Ateneo with 19 points, followed by Kristoffer Porter with 10 points while Gerald Austria had 10 rebounds.

Adamson U routed University of the East, 75-45, while University of Santo Tomas edged University of the Philippines Integrated School, 60-58, also last Saturday.

In badminton, NU nipped Ateneo, 3-2, then blanked Adamson, 5-0, to emerge as the only unbeaten men’s team after four rounds of action.

Ateneo, however, kept its record unblemished also in four rounds in the women’s contest to stay in step with FEU. Ateneo shut out Adamson, 5-0, and edged De La Salle, 3-2, while FEU beat UST, 4-1, and blanked Adamson, 5-0, in the weekend ties at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall.

But it was the NU-Ateneo third-round duel that highlighted the explosive weekend action.

Antonio Gadi drew first blood for the Blue Eagles, beating Aries de los Santos in the first singles, 21-11, 21-12. But the Bulldogs leveled with Joper Escueta besting Patrick Wilfred Natividad, 21-16, 21-13.

The Kennie Asuncion-coached Blue Eagles gained a 2-1 edge after the Gadi-Justin Natividad duo beat the tandem of de los Santos and Andrei Babad, 21-16, 21-11. But the host Bulldogs fought back behind Escueta and Sonny Montilla, who beat Natividad and Paolo Sunga in a 51-minute three-setter, 21-16, 15-21, 21-16, then Babad toppled Natividad, 22-20, 21-15, to clinch the win.

The Blue Eagles failed to recover from that loss and bowed to FEU, 1-4, in Sunday’s fourth round as they dropped to fourth at 2-2 behind the Green Archers and the Tamaraws.

De La Salle made it 2-0 for the weekend with a 4-1 conquest of UST on Saturday for a 3-1 record as the Tamaraws, also unbeaten in the weekend topped by its 5-0 shutout of UE in the third round.

UST also blanked UE, 5-0, for a 2-2 slate while UP won its third-round tie against Adamson, 5-0, to tie UE with one win apiece. Adamson has yet to break into the winner’s column.