UAAP: Adamson soars over UST as Tigers get cold in second half

The Adamson Soaring Falcons against the UST Growling Tigers. Photo from UAAP Media

MANILA (UPDATED) — Adamson University sent University of Santo Tomas crashing back to earth and handed the Growling Tigers their first loss of the UAAP Season 87 men's basketball tournament.

This, after the Soaring Falcons dominated UST, 69-56, on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

AJ Fransman had 11 points and 10 rebounds to star for the San Marcelino-based squad, while Matt Montebon top-scored with 15 markers, five boards, and four assists. 

"I'm happy with the effort that the players gave today. We out rebounded a big team like UST, so it means that they put in the effort today," said AdU head coach Nash Racela, whose squad moved up to 2-1 in the team standings. 

"The last couple of days, we've been struggling with our focus. I didn't really know how they would play today, but we made our adjustments and played a lot better today. It showed that we could compete with a team like UST," he continued.

This was indeed the case for Adamson as only a one-point game at halftime, the Soaring Falcons shackled UST to only scoring six points in the third while putting up 19 on the board.

This proved to be detrimental for the Tigers as they fell to as much as 67-47 later in the fourth quarter after an and-one by Joshua Yerro, and that was all that Adamson needed to hand the Tigers its first defeat in three games.

Also standing out for AdU was former UST player Royce Mantua who had 11 markers and two boards, while Matt Erolon and Yerro had six and five, respectively. 

Meanwhile, Nic Cabañero had 16 points to topscore for UST, but unfortunately, they were limited to 8-of-31 shooting in the second half and only shot 25.8 points.

Aside from this, the Tigers were also outrebounded, 46-33, and according to UST coach Pido Jarencio, the best thing to do with this loss is just to simply move forward.

"A loss is a loss. Basta kami, para maganda rin charge to experience lang. Bawi kami sa susunod. Matamlay eh, ang tamlay natin ngayon," he said.         

The Scores:

Adamson 69 -– Montebon 15, Fransman 11, Mantua 11, Erolon 6, Yerro 5, Calisay 5, Manzano 5, Ramos 5, Barasi 2, Ojarikre 2, Anabo 2, Ronzone 0, Ignacio 0, Dignadice 0.

UST 56 — Cabañero 16, Manaytay 9, Tounkara 7, Paranada 6, Lane 4, Robinson 3, Pangilinan 3, Padrigao 2, Estacio 2, Llemit 2, Laure 2, Acido 0, Crisostomo 0, Mahmood 0.

Quarterscores: 13-20, 33-32, 52-39, 69-56

This is the second win of Adamson this year, while UST also absorbed its first loss in three games. Both teams are at 2-1 in the team standings. 

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