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Warriors spoil Archers' bid for No. 3 spot
University of the East (UE) was playing with nothing to lose, wanting to end the 73rd UAAP men's basketball tournament in style. The Red Warriors, salvaging what was left of their pride, played the spoilers role on Saturday by stunning semifinalist La Salle Green Archers, 80-74, at the Araneta Coliseum. Behind the hot shooting hands of ace scorer Paul Lee and Raffy Reyes, UE made things right in the final period to endanger La Salle's bid of clinching at least the No. 3 spot in the Final Four. The win enabled the Recto-based dribblers, who were eliminated from Final Four contention by National University (NU) last Sunday, improved their win-loss record to 5-8. That loss to the Bulldogs had the Warriors missing the Final Four for the first time since 2001, ending a string of eight consecutive trips. "We're more like fighting for self-respect," said coach Lawrence Chongson. "It would have been nice if we would still be in the race for the Final Four but that's how it goes." "We still do hard practices even if we are now out of the running and told them that we just have to treat the remaining games by trying to play giant killers," added Chongson. Lee registered 19 points while adding four rebounds, four assists and three steals while Reyes, playing his final year, delivered a career-high 17 points and five rebounds. UE overcame a 12-point deficit as La Salle, behind Joshua "Spider" Webb, posted a 22-12 spread midway in the first quarter and enjoyed a 38-29 lead with under four minutes left before halftime. But the Warriors turned things around with an 11-2 run capped off by a steal and a lay-in by Lee before the buzzer to tie things up at 40-40. After a see-saw third quarter that ended with the score knotted at 56-56, Lee joined hands with Reyes in the fourth as they alternated in hitting the big shots in a 13-4 exchange that turned a 64-62 deficit into a 75-68 advantage with 68 seconds left in the contest. Lee started that scoring rampage with a triple for a 65-64 lead then ended it with a driving lay-up against a phalanx of La Salle defenders. A Sam Marata three-pointer in the 39-second mark pushed La Salle back at 77-74 but time was not on the Archers’ side. Webb finished with 14 points for the second straight game while Luigi Dela Paz added 13 markers, four rebounds and two assists. Center Papot Paredes had 10 points, seven boards and blocked three shots. La Salle fell to 8-5, which put its hopes of gaining a twice-to-beat advantage in peril depending on the result of the game between No. 3 Adamson and National University and Sunday's match pitting No. 2 Ateneo and University of Santo Tomas. - JVP, LBG, GMANews.TV
