The DLSU Lady Archers suffered their second loss in a row with a crushing 70-49 defeat to the defending UAAP champions, the FEU Lady Tamaraws. The loss came a week after the team’s first defeat of the season to the NU Lady Bulldogs which snapped a five game winning streak. With the loss, head coach Tyrone Bautista and his squad drop to a 5-2 record to conclude the first round of the eliminations.
No Lady Archer finished in double figures in the game as they collectively shot poor 28.8% from the field which doomed the team in the offensive end. Cass Santos top scored for the Lady Archers with nine points and four rebound in just 13 minutes of play, while Alyanna Ong and Alyanna Vergara chipped in with eight points apiece.
The game did not favor the Green-and-White squad as the team’s forte of rebounding seemed to go in favor of the Lady Tamaraws as they were outrebounded by seven, 50-43. The team’s long range shooting was also noticeably absent as they shot a dismal 17.6 percent from beyond the three point arc compared to FEU’s 33.3 percent.
The Lady Archers kept it close in the first quarter with only a one point deficit after ten minutes of play, but FEU hit three straight three-point baskets early in the second quarter as they began to pull away from DLSU. The lead of the Lady Tamaraws continued to grow from then on as DLSU found itself down by 21, 41-20, at the half and they even lagged to a deficit of 26 points midway through the final quarter.
The team’s star player, Ara Abaca, who averages a double-double so far in this year’s campaign, was cuffed by the opposing team’s defense as she was held to season-low outputs of four points and six rebounds. The team couldn’t find their offensive rhythm for the whole game and even their second leading scorer, Trisha Piatos, failed to convert a single three pointer as she finished the game with just two points.
The Lady Archers started the 76th season of the UAAP with five straight wins under their belt, then finished the first seven games of the eliminations with two consecutive losses. In their first five wins early in the season, the Lady Archers outhustled their opponents and crushed them in the rebounding department, and also out sniped their opponents from the three-point line. In the two losses against the powerhouse and league-leading NU and FEU, the Lady Archers were both outrebounded inside and outscored from long distance.
Despite their losing skid, the Lady Archers still finished the first round in third place with a 5-2 win-loss slate in the eight-team competition, behind only 7-0 FEU and 6-1 NU.
Box Scores:
FEU 70: Samblie 19, Albano 14, Tanaman 10, Soriano 10, Gesalan 5, Siat 4, Chan 4, Gabriel 2, Basa 2, Valenzona 0, Lozano 0, Castro 0, Baldonado 0, Arrelado 0
DLSU 49: Santos 9, Vergara 8, Ong A. 8, Garcia 5, Oyao 4, Corcuera 4, Abaca 4, Revillosa 2, Piatos 2, Claro 1, Scott 0, Ong M. 0
Quarter Scores: 12-11, 41-20, 54-30, 70-49
