FilOil: Green Archers outhustle SWU, advance to finals

In a rematch of last year’s PCCL finals, the DLSU Green Archers trounced the SWU Cobras, 72-64, in their semifinals match to book a ticket to the finals of the Fil-Oil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup.

Almond Vosotros led all scorers with 19 points, and Jeron Teng chipped in another 14 points.  Norbert Torres and Arnold van Opstal also contributed 12 and 11 points respectively for the Green-and-White.

SWU was spearheaded by Jasper Parker, who scored 17 points in the game. Former La Salle guard Mac Tallo fired 14 markers of his own, but struggled with his field goal shooting.

It was a tight game throughout the first half as neither of the schools could pull away from the other. The half ended with SWU leading 39-35 behind Parker`s hot shooting coupled with the Cobras’ pressure defense. Vosotros kept DLSU close with his 13 first half points, with 10 coming in the first quarter.

The Green Archers regained the lead midway through the third period, scoring 10 unanswered points to grab the lead, 50-46, with two minutes left in the quarter. SWU struggled late in the quarter, failing to find the bottom of the net for over three minutes.

The Taft-based squad finally found their rhythm in the last quarter. They attacked the basket consistently while limiting SWU to three point attempts. Despite Tallo scoring nine points, all from the three-point territory, his teammates struggled against La Salle`s perimeter defense. Down by eight points with less than a minute remaining, SWU chose not to foul, sealing the victory for DLSU.

“It’s a hard-fought game. It’s hard also to prepare for back-to-back games. Credits to how they [SWU] played us especially in the start of the second quarter all the way to the second half. They just kept pressuring us full-court which took us from our game. It was fortunate that we were able to adjust in the fourth quarter,” Coach Juno Sauler remarks on their victory.

“I told them not to be tentative.  If there is an opportunity to run, just keep running.  We’re going to try to have easy baskets because South Western [University] was pressuring us all the way from the back court, and  if we didn’t get easy baskets, we were trying to find miss-matches, which is what we’ve been doing every ball game,” Sauler added when asked how he adjusted the team’s offense.

The win marks La Salle’s fourth finals appearance since 2006. The Green Archers have won the Fil-Oil title twice, during the 2006 and 2007 tournaments, but had succumbed to the NU Bulldogs for a bridesmaid finish in 2012.