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There’s no stopping University of the East Warriors.

Struggling to get its game going, the Recto-based dribblers recovered their lost bearings in time to escape the upset ax of winless Universtiy of Perpetual Help Altas in ekeing out a thrilling 61-60 win last night in the Fil-Oil Flying V tournament at The Arena in San Juan.

For UE head coach Dindo Pumaren, it was the ugliest victory for his team in this tournament. “I call this win ugly because we played lousy basketball and there’s a case of overconfidence on the part of my players that nearly cost us the game,� said Pumaren during the post game interview.

“There’s no excuse for us even if the technical committee had to adjust the schedule much earlier than expected. We came in late in the venue and we had a bad start. But no matter what the situation is, we have no excuse for playing this bad.�

So bad the Red Warriors played that they fell behind by 13 in the first period, 7-20. Behind Rommel Balboa and Ronald Reyes, who combined for 12 of the Altas’ 20 points, the Las Piñas-based cagers dictated the tempo of the match. For awhile, coach Bai Cristobal sees daylight for his team and a shocking win is about to come in the offing.

But James Martinez and Elmer Espiritu began to light things up for the Warriors. Martinez scored six while Espiritu had five and the rest of the team did a little bit of everything to reduce the lead down to eight at the turn, 33-25.

Even when UE was breathing down its neck, University of Perpetual Help Altas refused to wilt down to the pressure.

In the third, it was Ryan Ynion, Andy Mejos and Mark Kong, who kept their team alive as the trio were the only players who managed to produce points for the Altas.

But Hans Thiele scored all his seven points in the second half, including five in the pivotal fourth that enabled the Warriors to post their fifth win in as many games in the tournament.

Thiele scored a three-point play with under a minute left to shove UE up by four, 61-57, with less than a minute left. There were some anxious moments in the next play.

Kong delivered a bucket from beyond-the-arc with 31 seconds left and put the Altas in the thick of things.

The Warriors couldn’t buy a basket in the next play and that allowed Cristobal’s crew the last chance to salvage what could have been their lone triumph in the tournament.

Their chances, however, slipped away through the young hands of Ronald Reyes, whose drive to the basket was thwarted by three UE defenders as time expired. It was more of a sigh of relief from Pumaren than jubilation.

“We had a hard time matching up with the small men of Perpetual. They had a small line-up but the team gave us a lot of problems,� he said.

The scores:

UE (61) – Martinez 14, Lee 13, Espiritu 10, Thiele 7, Reyes 5, Llagas 5, Lingganay 2, Acuna 2, Ebrone 2.

UPHDS (60) – Reyes 12, Kong 11, Ynion 8, Balboa 8, Mejos 7, Salanga 6, Galabin 2.

Quarterscores: 7-20; 25-33; 42-47; 61-60.

Tags: Events, FilOil-Flying-V, ncaa, News, Perpetual-Help, Petron, Red-Warriors, UAAP, UE

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