Manuel soars high with season-best in DLSU win against Adamson
The De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers were victorious against the Adamson University (AdU) Soaring Falcons, 61–58, in the final game of the first round of the UAAP Season 84 Men’s Basketball Tournament at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, Saturday.
Prior to this game, Joaqui Manuel only had six total points the entire season. In the end, he racked up a season-high 14 points and six rebounds in the tight contested win against the Soaring Falcons. He was an essential piece in the 3rd quarter after scoring 10 points, making back-to-back threes in the process to hand the Green Archers the lead.
This was not without any retaliation from the Soaring Falcons as they themselves rode on a 13–0 scoring run in the fourth with a clutch three-pointer by Keith Zaldivar in the ending stages that forced Coach Derrick Pumaren of the Green Archers a timeout to rally his team shouting “Don’t throw that basketball away!”
Ultimately the Falcons succumbed to the late-game heroics of Manuel, Evan Nelle, Schonny Winston, Justine Baltazar, and Mike Phillips.
In the 4th quarter, Adamson saw an opportunity to take over the game as Mark Nonoy and Baltazar had a cold shooting outing while the DLSU defense kept leaving wide-open threes and lanes to the basket, conceding to a lead as big as eight points after leading throughout the match. All seemed to go in the way of AdU not before Winston scored a much-needed and-one to lessen the Soaring Falcons lead to two, 51–53. A pivotal block by Baltazar, three-pointer from Evan Nelle, and pressure-packed free throws from Manuel in the dying minutes of the fourth sealed the deal in the heart racing match against the Soaring Falcons.
Both teams held a tight grip against each other in the first half as it ended with a score of 30–26 in favor of the Taft-based squad. DLSU could not fully capitalize on the turnovers from the Soaring Falcons, but were able to stake their claim on defense, causing turnovers and getting multiple blocks and hustles plays from Bright Nwankwo, and M.Phillips before the end of the third frame.
DLSU now stands at 5–2, bouncing back from last Thursday’s loss against the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons. They look to continue this momentum onto the second round of action. The schedule of round two is yet to be released as of this writing.
Boxscores:
DLSU 61 — Manuel 14, Nelle 12, Winston 10, M.Phillips 8, Lojera 8, Baltazar 6, Galman 3
AdU 58 — Lastimosa 15, Duoanga 11, Sabandal 10, Hanapi 9, Zaldivar 5, Manzano 4, Magbuhos 2, Peromingan 2
Quarterscores: 15–15, 30–26, 45–42, 61–58
