Archers drive off Tamaraws, enter finals

Game on Saturday (Mall of Asia Arena)

4 p.m. – UST vs NU (Final Four KO)

MANILA, Philippines - La Salle cranked it up in the fourth period to hack out a come-from-behind 71-68 victory over Final Four rival Far Eastern and clinch the first berth to the championship series of the UAAP Season 76 men’s basketball tournament yesterday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

A day after being described by Tams’ coach Nash Racela as the team which has the potential to dominate, the Green Archers found themselves playing catch-up most of the way but went on to unleash a big finishing kick to annex that finals-clinching win.

The Archers battled back from nine points down in the late stages of the third and swayed the game to their side with a 19-12 fourth-quarter assault that sent them to their first finals appearance since 2008 and 14th overall since 1994.

“There was a stretch where they (Tams) were up by nine and we called a timeout to tell the players to focus on what we’re good at, what our defensive and offensive game plans were and they stuck to it. We have to hand it to the players, they played with all their hearts out in the last five minutes, that’s why we’re able to pull this one through,” said DLSU coach Juno Sauler.

The Archers will await the winner between National U and University of Santo Tomas in the best-of-three finale next week.

DLSU trailed 47-56 in the last minute of the third but rallied to within four on a basket by Arnold van Opstal and three-of-four stint from the stripe by Jeron Teng off a crucial looseball foul and technical foul slapped on Gryann Mendoza.

The Archers finally caught up with the Tams in the last five minutes of the payoff period, via four points by Teng and a split from LA Revilla for a 70-66 cushion going to the last 13.1 seconds. 

MVP Terrence Romeo nailed a basket to make it a two-point game with still 5.8 seconds left then Jason Perkins stretched it to 71-68 on a split. FEU had 4.4 seconds to force an extension but Romeo’s Hail Mary triple at the buzzer was way off the mark.

“In the first half, they (FEU) shot 40 percent and we knew we just had to stick to our defensive game plan and the percentage will come into play, and true enough, they started missing in the fourth,” said Sauler, on the hunt for his first title in men’s basketball on his first season.

Teng shot 15 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and issued six assists while Revilla had 15 markers (5-of-7 FG) and eight boards and Torres finished with 15 points and seven caroms.

Carl Bryan Cruz topscored for the Tams with 16 followed by Romeo with 14 and graduating players RR Garcia and Mendoza with 10 and eight, respectively.

“We’re in control of the game; we got La Salle’s numbers finally and they were struggling with our defense almost the whole game. The players executed properly, maybe had a number of lapses but all in all, we’re happy with how they performed today,” said Racela, whose wards had their biggest lead at 46-35.