Archers repel Tigers; Bombers score

MANILA, Philippines - De La Salle U survived the late charge of University of Santo Tomas en route to a 72-67, triumph and a place into the next round of the Philippine Collegiate Champions League Sweet 16 knockout tourney at the Arena yesterday.

The Archers seized a 10-point lead entering the fourth then quashed the Tigers’ uprising with a split by Samuel Marata, a key block by Norbert Torres on a potential game-tying triple attempt by Louie Vigil, and two foul shots by Almond Vosotros – all in the last 10.6 seconds – to arrange a Last 8 duel with Letran today.

In the first game, Jose Rizal U squandered an eight-point fourth-quarter lead but held on to secure a 66-62 win over a short-handed National U crew.

The triumph sent the Bombers, semifinalists in the last NCAA caging, into the next phase against Adamson.

“This is our 13th day together and I see a lot of improvement. I’m just hoping we still keep on improving,” said La Salle coach Gee Abanilla.

“We got a long way to go, we’ve set our goals in such as way that we may be competitive in the UAAP. Right now, we’re just starting but we’re happy about it. The boys are really aggressive, it’s just that they just have to lower turnover and play smart,” he added.

Joshua Webb fired 16 points on a 7-of-10 field goal shooting to lead the DLSU offensive, getting support from Vosotros (13), Luigi dela Paz (12) and Marata (10).

Big man Torres anchored the defense down low with seven points, five rebounds and three shot blocks, outplaying UST’s Cameroonian slotman Karim Abdul (five points, seven rebounds).

Drawing a foul from NU’s Robin Roño amid a searing Bulldog rally, Nate Matute split his charities to give the Heavy Bombers a 64-62 lead with 13.8 seconds left in the contest.

Then JRU watched as Reden Celda’s game-tying lay-up try for NU trickle out, quickly pouncing on the opportunity to send John Lopez to the line for the insurance free throws.

Lopez led a balanced scoring attack for JRU with 10 points, including six in the payoff period, backstopped by John Villarias and Jekster Apinan’s identical outputs of eight points and nine rebounds.

Cameroonian Emmanuel Mbe shot 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Jeff Javillonar fired 12 markers and nine boards to pace NU, which missed MVP Bobby Ray Parks Jr. (SEA Games campaign) and four other players (PBA D-League commitment).