The gritty De La Salle Lady Archers showed that team effort will always be the key as they eked out a 50-42 victory over the Adamson Lady Falcons for their second straight win in the UAAP Season 77 women’s basketball tournament held in Ateneo’s Blue Eagle Gym earlier this morning.
After a turnover-filled start which saw the Lady Archers fell early 12-5 at the halfway mark of the 2nd quarter, DLSU uncorked a 14-0 run in a span of 5 minutes which started with Ana Castillo’s trey and ended with Fretzie Oyao’s lay up off a Miller Ong assist. Zhalyn Mateo stopped the bleeding for the Lady Falcons with a trey at the buzzer with still the Lady Archers on top at halftime, 19-16.
Adamson regained the lead at 24-23 with 5:12 left in the 3rd quarter via Jingky Ballasta’s trey but Trisha Piatos, Camille Claro, Niky Scott, Alyanna Ong, Chay Vergara, and Jamie Roxas all joined forces in the remainder of the quarter to give the Lady Archers a 34-26 lead entering the final period.
The Lady Archers’ 2-3 zone defense gave the Lady Falcons problems in the 2nd and 3rd quarters as Adamson kept on missing shots from the perimeter and it seemed like they only had one play prepared for it. The Lady Archers were able to deflect passes in the middle to Janille De Castro in order to disrupt Adamson’s offense.
The final quarter became a cruise control quarter for the Lady Archers as they just thwarted every Adamson rally to try and stay close to the game. The Lady Falcons got their mojo zapped when Fretzie Oyao blocked two shots then capped with Nicky Garcia’s and-1 play on the break to give DLSU a 42-34 lead with 2:41 left in the game.
It was just a scoring exchange from then on until the final score was reached at 50-42. Ana Castillo and Camille Claro led the Lady Archers with 8 points each. Trisha Piatos, who scored 23 points last weekend on the win against UST, was just limited to 7 points from 10 field goal attempts. Piatos though, led the team with 5 assists with everyone contributing in this win.
Zhalyn Mateo and Jingky Ballasta led the Lady Falcons with 11 points each. The Lady Archers are joined by the NU Lady Bulldogs and the Ateneo Lady Eagles at the top of the standings with two wins out of two matches. NU defeated UST, 62-60 while Ateneo defeated FEU, 58-55. Adamson dropped to 1-1 in the standings and joined by UE, who beat UP earlier, 58-47.
The Lady Archers’ next assignment is on Thursday, July 24, 2014 against the winless UP Lady Maroons. Game time is at 1:00pm and still in Ateneo’s Blue Eagle Gym. This would be the last weekday game for the Lady Archers (until the re-scheduled date for the game against FEU gets set) in the first round of eliminations.
Box Scores:
DLSU 50 – Claro 8, Castillo 8, Piatos 7, Garcia 6, Oyao 6, A. Ong 5, Scott 4, Roxas 3, Vergara 3, M. Ong 0, Corcuera 0, Melendres 0, Lumba 0, Pineda 0.
AdU 42 – Ballasta 11, Mateo 11, Avila 7, Ong 4, Ballaso 3, De Castro 2, Amper 2, Ido 2, Alcoy 0, Durens 0, Osano 0, Tacitac 0.
Quarter Scores: 5-8, 19-16, 34-26, 50-42