Coming off a tough drubbing in their previous game, the DLSU Lady Archers relied on their three-point shooting to claim their second victory of the season against longtime rivals ADMU Blue Eagles, 75-67, earlier today, October 9, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Player of the Game Lee Sario spearheaded La Salle’s offense, tallying up a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds. Fina Niantcho matched the feat with 13 markers and 10 boards. Rounding up the tally, Charmine Torres and Bettina Binaohan added a solid 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Kacey Dela Rosa had a game-high 21 points and 14 rebounds in a losing effort for the Blue Eagles while Jhazmin Joson chipped in 14 of her own, to go along with nine assists.
Three-point barrage
The Lady Archers came out of the gates strong, stringing together pull up jump shots and swarming defense as they built an early 9-3 lead at the 5:48 mark. However, the Taft-based squad started to become careless with the ball, finding themselves on the wrong end of consecutive turnovers after traveling violations and misplaced passes. The Blue Eagles capitalized on this by going on an 8-2 run—capped off by a three from Junize Calago that tied the game at 11-all. With less than two minutes remaining in the first period, La Salle ended the quarter strong with two straight threes from Binaohan and Luisa de la Paz, giving them a 19-12 advantage.
Fresh off their hot first quarter, the Lady Archers maintained their momentum as Binaohan hit another triple from the wing to ignite DLSU’s scoring in the second, 22-12. In contrast, the Blue Eagles could neither score outside of the paint nor break the Green and White’s full court press in the opening minutes of the second frame. ADMU slowly trimmed away at their deficit, thanks to the tag-team of Joson and Dela Rosa. However, it was Torres who had the last say of the first half, hitting a direly needed floater to narrowly keep the La Salle lead, 36-33.
Tight-knit finish
After a tightly-contested first half, the game looked set to be a nip-and-tuck affair in the third quarter when the two rivals exchanged the lead throughout the period. The Lady Archers’ ran their offensive sets well, including dribble penetration plays and long bombs, but were overly aggressive on the defensive side of the ball; getting into the penalty with more than six minutes remaining in the quarter. After Lj Miranda’s layup gave Ateneo a 47-46 advantage, La Salle responded with a fiery 8-0 run, courtesy of consecutive shots from downtown from Sario and de la Paz, to take a comfortable 54-47 lead at the 1:30 mark. However, the Blue Eagles answered back with two long bombs from Calago and Joson as the quarter ended with a slim three-point advantage for the Green and White, 56-53.
The final period saw the two teams in a back-and-forth exchange of perimeter shooting and crafty layups. This would go on until the latter half of the quarter—when a Joson three-pointer cut Ateneo’s deficit to three, 70-67. With 56 seconds left in the game, Sario then answered back and held the reins for the Lady Archers, icing the Blue Eagles with a triple from the top of the key, 73-67. The final fatal blow came from Torres who was perfect from the charity stripe to hand Ateneo the loss, 75-67.
The DLSU Lady Archers will aim to stay in the winning column as they match up against the UE Lady Warriors at 9 am on Wednesday, October 12, at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.
The Scores:
DLSU 75 – Sario 19, Niantcho 13, Torres 12, Binaohan 10, De La Paz 6, Arciga 5, Ahmed 4, Dalisay 3, Espinas 2, Jimenez 1, Camba 0
ADMU 67 – Dela Rosa 21, Joson 14, Miranda 9, Eufemiano 8, Calago 7, Nieves 6, Makanjuola 2, Jajurie 0, Villacruz 0, Gino-Gino 0
