By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons leaned on a flawless second-half clinic to fend off the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers, 81-70, in the ongoing UAAP Season 87 Men’s Basketball Tournament on October 2, 2024, at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
With another victory, the Fighting Maroons extended its undefeated UAAP streak to six games and are a win away from completing a first-round preliminary sweep.
UP only has one game remaining before the second round kicks off, and that’s against their nemesis, the DLSU Green Archers in a grand finals rematch of last year’s championship series.
Just like their past outing against the Adamson Soaring Falcons, UP squandered another opportunity to start strong and trailed the entire first half.
Without the presence of their main floor general JD Cagulangan who sat out due to health reasons, the Fighting Maroons started slow and failed to execute their crisp offensive plays.
That was then taken advantage by the Growling Tigers as the duo of Mo Tounkara and Forthsky Padrigao shouldered the UST offense and took turns in exposing UP’s defensive gaps.
However, the Fighting Maroons flipped the switch and rewrote the script in the second half as they stunned UST with a series of momentum-stealing offensive runs.
The biggest turnaround came in the fourth quarter when the Fighting Maroons hosted a demoralizing 11-0 run that ballooned their lead to as much as 14 points in the final three-minute mark.
Francis Lopez was a beast for UP after man-handling the UST interior with his athleticism and decided to attack the paint at will.
Backstopping Lopez’s fourth-quarter brilliance were Janjan Felicilda and Harold Alarcon, who supplied clutch baskets during that 11-0 run.
UST then failed to recover and ended their scoring drought at the 2:37 mark after Nic Cabañero earned a trip to the charity stripe.
Padrigao attempted to spearhead one last UST rally after draining a long three-pointer but the next possessions came out empty for the Growling Tigers as they capped off their second straight loss with a cold run.
Alarcon paced the Fighting Maroons with 16 points while Lopez, the energy guy for UP in the second half, delivered 15 markers, six rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks.
