Baby, Lady Tams near junior, women's titles

MANILA, Philippines - Roger Domingo hit a triple as FEU-Diliman survived the limited stint of MVP Jerie Pingoy and eked out a hard-earned 78-77 victory over defending champion National University to move closer to the UAAP juniors basketball crown at The Arena in San Juan last night.

Domingo’s clutch shot from the beyond the arc capped a gutsy fightback by the Baby Tams from seven points down in the last 3:07, with Joshua Aguilon (11 points) filling in for Pingoy, who topscored with 16 despite sitting out the first three minutes of the fourth due to injury. Pingoy later fouled out with 1:07 left.

“We just focused on our defense since we’re having difficulty making shots. Pingoy struggled, fouled out and fortunately, Aguilon stepped up. Even though we’re down by seven, we never gave up on defense, believing we can still do it,” said Baby Tams coach Michael Oliver.

He said Pingoy’s disqualification was a blessing in disguise. “NU’s defense was thrown off in the crucial part since they didn’t know who would take charge without Pingoy,” he added.

Joel Lee Yu backstopped Pingoy with 12 points while Domingo, Aguilon and Jeson Delfinado had 11 apiece for the Baby Tams, who will go for the clincher on Thursday.

Raphael Atangan fired 23 points for NU, but he couldn’t get hold of the leather in NU’s final offensive against Lee Yu, sealing their downfall.

Meanwhile, MVP shoo-in Allana Lim waxed hot in the payoff period as unbeaten Far Eastern U tripped La Salle, 64-56, to pull within a win of completing a perfect championship season in the UAAP women’s basketball finals.

Lim, who topped the statistical points race, fired 10 of her 17 points in the fourth to lead the Lady Tams’ breakaway to their 15th straight victory after a sweep of the elims, earning the distinction of being the first basketball team in the league to go 15-0 in a season.

The Lady Tams, who enjoy thrice-to-beat finals incentive owing to their elims sweep, will try to put the punctuation mark to an immaculate title run with a title-clinching 16th victory on Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“We need one more win. As I’ve been telling them everytime we win games, we don’t have the right to celebrate yet. Not until we win the crown,” FEU coach Allan Albano said in Filipino.

He said they expect the Lady Archers to give them a tough time in the second game.

“We’ll be ready for the second game. We’ll prepare hard, especially knowing La Salle’s determination to bounce back and their proven system,”said Albano, looking to give FEU its second straight diadem and 11th overall.

After a scoreless stint in the first half, Lim asserted herself in the last 20 minutes, doing the most damage in a 9-2 salvo that gave FEU a 58-49 cushion entering the last 4:57.

Lim was hampered by cramps in the stretch but Soc Borja (13 markers, five steals) and Camille Sambile (11 points, 12 rebounds) took the cudgels and put the finishing touches to FEU’s conquest.

Trisha Piatos paced the Lady Archers with 15 points while Aracelie added a double-double effort of 10 markers and 12 boards.