Tams blast Falcons, near twice-to-beat

MANILA, Philippines - Final Four-bound Far Eastern U rolled to its ninth straight win, hacking out a wire-to-wire 82-69 rout of upset-conscious Adamson to gain a playoff for the twice-to-beat bonus yesterday in the UAAP Season 78 men’s basketball tournament at the MOA Arena.

Russel Escoto, Raymar Jose and Mac Belo shot 13, 12, and 10 points, respectively to lead a balanced offensive that saw 11 FEU players on the scoresheet.

The Tams hiked their league-leading tally to 10-1, moving a win away from the sought-after semis bonus.

“We’re happy but we’re still not satisfied with our performance. We still lacked the aggressiveness that’s needed coming into the playoffs,” said Escoto.

FEU seized a 66-49 spread late in the third but AdU rallied to within four, 64-68, halfway through the fourth.

But even if coach Nash Racela didn’t sue for time, the Tams took it upon themselves to regroup and counter with a 12-0 blast to restore a 16-point bulge.

“I didn’t want to talk to them. I held them responsible for the run of Adamson. I waited for them to do something about it, they talked to one another and all of a sudden, we got the lead back,” said Racela.

FEU put the cuffs of AdU import Papi Sarr, holding him to four points on 1-of-6 shooting and eight rebounds after a dominating performance in their first-round meeting.

“Last game he had 26 points and 22 rebounds against us. We really focused on him; we had four to five guys matching up on him. We’re satisfied we’re able to execute our defensive gameplan on Sarr. But on Sarr alone, not on the others,” said Racela.

Jerome Garcia (16) and Joseph Nalos (15) led the way for AdU, which failed to sustain the momentum from its 75-74 upset of La Salle and fell to 2-10.

Sparked by J-jay Alejandro’s fourth-quarter explosion and career-high 25 markers, embattled titleholder National U climbed back from an 11-point deficit to prevail over La Salle, 81-73, in the other game and stay alive in the Final Four chase.

With 5-7, the Bulldogs moved a half game behind the fourth-running Archers (5-6), who absorbed their second straight loss.

Alejandro dropped 17 points in the payoff period as he nearly single-handedly gave the Bulldogs a 71-62 cushion going to the last 3:20.

“Somebody needs to step up since Pao (Javelona) was in foul trouble and Kyle (Neypes) got injured,” said Alejandro, who drained three triples in their telling run.

The Archers started the third with an 11-2 run to seize a 43-32 upperhand but Neypes spearheaded a 12-0 counter-assault to help NU retake the lead. Neypes hurt his foot after a putback and didn’t return to the floor.

“I’m very proud of the boys, how we responded (to the occasion). We started really bad in the third but I saw the resiliency of the boys and we’re able to regroup and get back our game,” said NU coach Eric Altamirano.

Jeron Teng also had 25 for DLSU.