Green Archers succumb to Red Warriors in another highly-physical contest

There are basketball games which are played with finesse, featuring teams with offenses as fluid as the mercury inside a thermometer and players putting on proverbial shooting clinics. Some games, on the other hand, are the exact opposite, where turnovers are aplenty, tempers are flaring, and points are hard to come by.

The game between the DLSU Green Archers and the UE Red Warriors happened to fall under the latter category, as both squads shot an atrocious 38% from the field and committed a combined 45 turnovers and 45 fouls.

But in the end of the highly-physical contest, it was the UE Red Warriors who had carved the upset, stunning the Archers, 67-65, in the Fil-Oil Flying V Pre-Season Tournament held at the San Juan Arena.

La Salle had actually wrested the lead from the gritty Warriors for the most part of the final quarter, mostly due to the long-distance sniping of Almond Vosotros, who erupted for a game-high 25 points, which is spiked by five triples. However, no other Archer finished in double figures as Mac-Mac Tallo, Joshua Webb, and Jovet Mendoza finished in nine, eight, and seven points, respectively.

20 of the game’s 45 errors were committed by the Archers, but in the end, it was La Salle’s final turnover that was to cost them the game, as Warrior Gene Belleza stole an inbound pass by Luigi Dela Paz and scored a lay-up with 15 seconds left, giving the Warriors the lead for good.

The Archers still had a couple of chances to gain the upperhand, but Vosotros and Dela Paz missed potential game-winners, thus enabling the Warriors to escape with their second victory of the tournament, while absorbing only their second loss and snapping their three-game winning streak.

The Warriors actually held a ten-point halftime lead, but La Salle was able to cut it to two at the end of the third canto, 46-48, thanks to the offensive spark provided by Vosotros and Webb. The Archers were then able to grab their biggest lead of the game, 52-46, on a lay-up by Tallo, but the Warriors went on an 11-3 scoring run to end the game and snatch the victory.

The Warriors made a living from the charity stripe, as they made 23 of their 33 freebies, while the Archers were able to make eight of their 14 attempts. The vastly undersized frontline of the Warriors were also able to hold their own against La Salle’s big men to earn a slight 39-34 edge on the boards against the Archers.

Aside from withstanding Vosotros’ offensive performance, the Warriors also bucked the loss of two of their players, Jay-ar Sumido and Erwin Duran, who were both slapped with technical fouls and subsequently ejected from the game with 1:20 remaining in the third canto.

The Green Archers will surely be looking back to get back on the winning track after their loss, and their next opponent will be the University of Perpetual Help Altas, in a game which will happen on May 25.

Earlier in the junior’s division, De La Salle Zobel defeated EAC 98-67 .

Box Scores
UE 67-Sumang-13, Sumido-12, Javier-11, Santos-11, Zosa-7, Duran-4, Belleza-4, Razon-4, Galanza-1, Duncil-0, Villarias-0, Valdez-0, Hernandez-0, Flores-0, Woodward-0, Alberto-0

DLSU 65-Vosotros-25, Tallo-9, Webb-8, Dela Paz-7, Teng-5, Mendoza-4, Torres N.-3, Manguera-2, Herrera-2, Andrada-0, Gotladera-0, Tampus-0, Paredes-0, Reyes-0

Quarterscores: 14-10,24-34,48-46,67-65

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