La Salle Loses Steam In UP Fourth Quarter Fightback

La Salle Loses Steam In UP Fourth Quarter Fightback

UP gets the better of La Salle 61-59 holding them scoreless in the last 2 minutes. UP also went scoreless in 4 possessions in that stretch and they were lucky La Salle wasn't able to take the game into overtime with a last second missed shot from Michael Phillips. Zavier Lucero was the best player who scored 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, with a couple of sensational dunks. Together with Carl Tamayo, it was a frontcourt showdown against Justine Baltazar and M. Phillips. Bright Nwankwo received little playing minutes while Malick Diouf was rather a non-factor on both ends of the court. It was a back and forth game in the first quarter as both teams were neck and neck at 17-all, characteristic of a defensive game. La Salle and UP would run with opportunities but they cannot pull away from each other. La Salle led 35-28 in the second quarter after Evan Nelle heats up from outside while CJ Cansino hits a couple of 3-pointers. Tamayo scored 5 straight points to make the game 35-32 La Salle still leads at halftime. Lucero and James Spencer picked the slack for UP who was missing the scoring of Ricci Rivero. La Salle makes it 48-45 after 3 quarters with M. Phillips scoring at the post and Mark Nonoy making layups. Lucero was exchanging baskets with the La Salle squad in the 4th quarter making jump shots, drives and follow-up layups. Lucero capped the 8-0 UP run with a 3-ball the score 57-54 UP leads with 4 minutes left in the game. M. Phillips scored on a follow and Deschon Winston hits a 3 and La Salle comes within 2 of UP at 61-59 time two minutes left. La Salle would come up short. UP was led by Lucero with 21 points, Tamayo 9 and Cansino 9. Baltazar led La Salle with 13 points, Nelle 13, M. Phillips 9 and Nonoy 9.