The De La Salle Green Archers continued their winning form today as they defeated a feisty UST Growling Tigers squad, 78-70, in the FilOil Flying V Preseason Hanes Cup held at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan City. Everyone was expecting a heated confrontation by brothers Jeron and Jeric Teng who were playing for the Green Archers and the Growling Tigers, respectively. However, it was La Salle’s Big Men who stole the show for the Green Archers.
Norbert Torres led the Green Archers in almost all Departments by registering 16 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Rookie Jeron Teng came second by scoring 14 points, 12 of which came from the free throw line. Papot Paredes, Almond Vosotoros and Alfonzo Gotladera completed La Salle’s double-digit scorers list by registering 12, 10 and 10 points respectively.
Tampus and Andrada were sidelined in this particular game. Yutien had no real injuries and was sidelined as a precautionary measure to prevent further injury after he had a slight accident in a training. Tampus, however, was held out to allow him to recover from a minor foot injury. According to Coach Gee Abanilla, both are expected to join the next practice session and fans of the team have nothing to worry about.
The Growling Tigers, who played without center Karim Abdul, were led by Mariano, Fortuna, Ferrer and Bautista who scored 19, 13, 13 and 12 points respectively. The boys from España got off to a fiery start as they left the Green Archers in the dust by scoring the first 6 points of the game. Tallo managed to break the ice for the Green Archers by scoring a quick jump shot in the early parts of the first quarter. UST’s early offense was eventually neutralized by La Salle’s defense, allowing the Green Archers catch up with UST at the end of the first quarter at 15-all.
The second quarter started in favor of the Archers. Rookie Jeron Teng used his ball handling skills and speed to penetrate UST’s defense, fish fouls, and get to the charity lane. La Salle’s free-throw shooting has improved a lot from their game against Colegio de San Juan de Letran with 3 of La Salle’s players registering perfect free-throw shooting percentage. La Salle’s controlled offense allowed the Archers to take a 39-30 at half-time lead.
La Salle’s effective passing reflected the improvement in team chemistry. One new tactic unveiled by the team was the post oriented plays centered around our big men. Norbert Torres showcased his improved post skills with his double-double, and reserves Papot Paredes and Alfonso Gotladera also showed significant improvement in their performance in the paint.
Paredes had an almost perfect shooting game by making 6 of his 7 shots while Gotladera managed to score 4 out of his 7 shots. Together with the rookie combination of Tallo and Teng, this inside-out tactic allowed La Salle to register the biggest lead in the game at 12 points, 57 – 45.
UST managed to reduce La Salle’s lead by as much as 6 in the fourth quarter as Tallo and Thomas Torres got into foul trouble. La Salle’s Big Men saved the game, with crucial conversions and and-ones from Norbert Torres and Papot Paredes providing enough breathing space at the end.
Despite the win, Coach Gee Abanilla said that the team is still a work in progress. “Our main focus in our system is the team’s defense”, he said. “Offensively, we prefer to score points inside. We give much attention to our guards and centers. Our main scoring strategy is to feed our posts and it has worked well so far. We give our guards and centers the freedom to score in which way they want, but our focus is on the posts”, he added.
Box Scores:
DLSU 78-Torres N. 16, Teng 14, Paredes 12, Vosotros 10, Gotladera 10, Tallo 6, Manguera 5, Mendoza 3, Webb 2, Torres T. 0, Reyes 0, Herrera 0
UST 70- Mariano 19, Fortuna 13, Ferrer 13, Bautista 12, Teng, 7, Afuang 4, Pe 2, Garrido 0, Hainga 0, Vigil 0, Tan 0, Lo 0, Mamaril 0
Quarter Scores: 15-15;39-30;59-50;78-70