Less than 24 hours after tasting sweet but exhausting victory against the UST Growling Tigers at the FilOil Flying V Tournament, the DLSU Green Archers faced the Informatics Icons only to suffer a 47-53 defeat at the 19th Fr. Martin Summer Cup basketball tournament last May 6.
“We don’t have fresh legs. The boys are tired from yesterday’s game. I didn’t let some of them play today, because pagod na e,” Archers’ mentor Gee Abanilla said.
The Archers played with a limited eight-man roster, excluding rookie Jeron Teng who buried 14 markers in the previous UST game.
Although the Informatics Icons opened the game with the 2-point mark at 9:25, Green Archer returnee Jed Manguera reacted with a 3-point play at 8:13.
The Taft-based squad survived the first quarter with a poor 7-19 score board, with Manguera scoring five out of the total output.
Meanwhile, the combination of Archers Thomas Torres and Fonzo Gotladera erupted on the second frame collecting 14 points.
It seemed like the Green Archers worked on their free throw shooting, hitting 6 out of 8 attempts, earning more points than from the rainbow line.
The Torres-Gotladera duo, however, didn’t suffice as the Informatics still maintained a 10-point lead, 31-21.
19 strong points, however, gave hope for the Taft-based squad during the third quarter. With veterans Papot Paredes, Martin Reyes and Aiki Herrera stepping up, they were able to limit the opponent’s firepower through intense pressure, rebounding and zone defense.
The two camps heated up as tension wrapped the playing court between an Informatics Icon and Jed Manguera with 1:58 remaining. The referees, however, decided not to issue any technical foul.
Spectators could sense the well-worn fatigue of the Green Archers from the start of the 4th quarter onwards.
From a strong 19 points during the previous quarter, the boys in Green went back to seven digits due to weak offensive executions and loosening defense.
Again, free-throw shooting kept the Green Archers alive, but this was not enough in winning the ball game at the Dom Placid gymnasium.
Torres continued his strong rookie showing with 10 points, while Maguera, Gotladera and Herrera finished with seven each.
“The boys are really tired, but they made a good fight today considering they just had an intense game against UST yesterday,” Coach Abanila concluded.
Quarter Scores: 7-19, 21-31, 40-44, 47-53
[widgetkit id=2444]
More photos at our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheLasallian
Archers’ games schedule can be viewed here: http://thelasallian.com/?p=2190
