Vosotros continues to shine as DLSU outplays FEU
La Salle continues to play cat-and-mouse with host National University going to the Final Four.
Thanks to another sizzling shooting performance from diminutive Almond Vosotros, the Green Archers pulled the rug from under the favored Tamaraws of Far Eastern University with a huge 63-56 win Sunday to gain a share of the fourth with the Bulldogs anew in the UAAP Season 75 men’s basketball action.
Before a relatively pro-La Salle crowd of 11, 942, Vosotros sustained his second-round brilliance with a team-high 21 points, highlighted by a clutch triple off the glass in the stretch, to help the Green Archers pull abreast anew with the Bulldogs at fourth with identical 8-5 marks.
“Parang lucky shot na ‘yun,” noted Vosotros of his badly needed trey that restored order for La Salle and stretched their lead to 56-49 with 2:34 left. “Sobrang important talagang manalo. Kasi ‘pag natalo kami, ma-a-out na.”
Rookie Jeron Teng emerged as the only other Archer who scored double figures in points with 10 but coach Gee Abanilla was still satisfied with his team’s collective performance that helped move on from a 62-72 loss handed by NU last Sept. 9.
“We got our chance right now,” beamed Abanilla.
And the rookie coach wants his charges to go all-out in their make-or-break game against Adamson on Sept. 20, saying: “But this game won’t mean anything if we lose to Adamson. We must win against Adamson and after that, hindi na namin control ‘yun. Bahala na ang Diyos sa amin.”
Terrence Romeo exploded for 26 markers but former MVP RR Garcia groped in the face of the Green Archers’ defense, settling for just 10 points and muffing a point-blank lay-up in the crunch, leaving the Tamaraws fretting with their fifth loss against nine wins.
With the loss, FEU dropped to a tie at second to third spots with idle University of Santo Tomas and now needs to win the much-anticipated replay game against NU on Sept. 23.
The Green Archers pulled away from the Tamaraws with a nine-to-nothing run to start the third, erecting a 35-24 that ballooned to as high as 46-33 off a Norbert Torres bucket early in the fourth.
The Tamaraws, however, staged a searing 16-7 fightback, capped by a Garcia split, to cut the deficit at 49-53.
But Vosotros uncorked that off-the-glass triple in the face of Garcia that completely extinguished the Tamaraws’ onslaught and Green Archers held on.
La Salle successfully avenged its stinging 46-48 defeat to FEU last July 22.
