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WEEK 3 of UAAP’s Season 71 saw two dark horses climbing up the standings while two pre-season favorites going back to the drawing board to check their slide. This week’s schedule were supposed to be relatively easy for some of the favorites but it seems that their weaknesses are now exposed. Ateneo is still undefeated, NU remains winless, and four teams are in the middle of the pack: and UST is not even among them! Let’s go back to the games of Week 3.

Thursday, July 18

FEU 88 UP 66. The FEU Tamaraws bounced back from a week 2 loss by giving the UP Fighting Maroons a severe beating. It was an all-Tamaraw affair as Benedict Fernandez finally came out of his shell and fired 16 points (3 out of 5 from beyond the arc) as the Maroons failed to bring the tough defense they showed in opening weekend and, well, for a brief moment, against UST. As for UP, it seems like they’re back in the doldrums as things gets tougher for them in their next game against Ateneo. FEU’s win was the second in three outings for the Tamaraws while the Maroons fell to 1-2.

La Salle 85 UST 84. A potential Final Four game perhaps…The Archers took control early, racing to 5 point leads. Then the Tigers answered back and threatened to take control of the game, leading by 5, 32-27 in the dying minutes of the first half. But the Archers answered back with a 11-2 run to finish the first half strong, and the lead for good… almost! Trailing by 9 in the third quarter, UST stormed back and caught up with La Salle at 66-all with 8 minutes left in the game. It was nip and tuck from thereon as both squads battled through lead changes.

With under two minutes remaining, Bader Malabes broke a 77-all count with a triple from the left side to give the Archers an 80-77 lead. After Jeric Fortuna cut the lead to 1, Dylan Ababou drove to the lane and gave the lead back to the Tigers 81-80 with 59 seconds remaining. Ababou was fouled in the process but couldn’t convert the three point opportunity. James Mangahas regained the lead for the Archers with a nifty one-on-one move to the basket 12 seconds later. The next possession saw UST muffed four attempts, the last two were misses by Fortuna from three point country. And so with 16 seconds left, the Tigers had to give up a foul and JV Casio calmly sank two free throws to give La Salle a little breathing space. Fortuna again missed a triple with 7 seconds left, and Maui Villanueva was fouled. Villanueva made one free throw to guarantee the victory. With the win, La Salle joined UE and FEU at 2-1 while UST dropped to 1-2.

Saturday, July 19

Ateneo 83 UP 66. “Who’s your Daddy?” This question will continue to hound the UP Fighting Maroons as the Ateneo Blue Eagles continued its’ mastery of the Battle of Katipunan. Unless the Fighting Maroons improve on their basketball and recruitment program, Ateneo will continue their domination over UP at least in the next 4-5 years with their prized rookie Ryan Buenafe leading the way. The freshman Buenafe, who has been college ready, basketball-wise since two seasons back, led the way with 17 points with guards Chris Tiu, Jai Reyes and Eric Salamat breaking down the Maroons zone. It was close in the first few minutes with UP taking an early 3 point lead, 5-2. But a 21-6 run gave Ateneo control of the game. UP managed to cut the lead to 9 51-42 after trailing by 15. But with Magi Sison and Kevin Astorga out on fouls, there was no way UP could go near as Ateneo’s big men abused the paint. With the win, Ateneo finished Week 3 with a 4-0 record while UP dropped to 1-3.

La Salle 93 NU 69. “Peejay who???” Peejay Barua, the quiet, soft-spoken forward of La Salle, literally brought the Archers back as he shot 14 straight points, anchoring a 14-2 run to turn a 22-13 deficit to a 27-24 lead early in the second quarter. The Bulldogs, which led as many as 10 in th first quarter, never knew what hit them as the rest of the Archers took Barua’s cue and made minced meat of the NU defense. The Archers also stepped up on defense, forcing the Bulldogs to numerous turnovers. Rico Maierhofer made 16 points, including a spectacular steal then finishing with a slam dunk. Barua shot a cereer high 26 points on 6 triples, four of which was made in the said run. La Salle improved to 3-1 as Franz Pumaren continues to show the league the various weapons the Archers has in its armory, while NU sank deeper in the cellar with a 0-4 record.

Sunday, July 20

Adamson 66 UE 64. Finally, an upset! The UE Red Warriors suffered their second straight defeat, this time in the hands of the very underrated Adamson Falcons. The Falcons snatched the victory via Paul Gonzalgo’s jumper from beyond the arc- very reminiscent of what his ex-pro dad Dante used to do with his PBA team. Trailing 15-10 after the first quarter, Adamson dropped an 11-3 bomb to grab the lead from the Warriors. The Falcons stretched that lead to 15, 48-33 midway in the third as Jan Colina and Michael Galinato took advantage of their size. UE fought back in the fourth as assassin James Martinez finally hit his target with two triples down the stretch. Trailing 63-60, UE’s Hans Thiele and Elmer Espiritu made four straight free throws to take the lead at 64-63, with 23 seconds remaining. In Adamson’s last possession, UE made a tap out with seven seconds remaining, but the remaining time was just enough for Gonzalgo’s winning shot. Adamson thus caught up with UE at 2-2.

FEU 70 UST 65. FEU continued its’ winning run, this time outlasting an undermanned UST Tigers to catch up with the leaders. This game saw both teams take two quarters each, but the Tamaraws took the quarter that mattered most- the final quarter. Down by two after three quarters, FEU unleashed a 15-4 run in the fourth led by Benedict Fernandez’s 9 points (24 points total) as they took control of the game for good with the score at 62-53, time down to five minutes and forty seven seconds remaining. UST rookies Jeric Fortuna and Clark Bautista carried the fight for UST as the Tigers came back to cut the lead to 2, 67-57 with under two minutes left. But both rookies succumbed to pressure as they committed miscues and allowed FEU to grab the win. And with the win, FEU is now tied up with La Salle at second with a 3-1 record, while UST’s second straight loss dropped them to 1-3.

Week 3 is surely an eye opener, especially for UE and UST as they try to bounce back and hopefully regain their winning form in Week 4. Unfortunately for the Tigers, ace point guard Japs Cuan will be out for at least three weeks due to a knee injury, and rookie point guard Jeric Fortuna will be hard-pressed to grow up faster. We’re also keeping an eye on Adamson as they bring their much improved play against La Salle and UST in the next week.

Tags: Adamson-Falcons, Ateneo-Blue-Eagles, De-La-Salle-Green-Archers, FEU-Tamaraws, NU-Bulldogs, Petron, UAAP, UE-Red-Warriors, University-of-Sto.-Tomas-Growling-Tigers, UP-Fighting-Maroons

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