Quick Fire: La Salle Green Archers Survives Yet Another Meltdown, Beats Adamson Soaring Falcons 85-73

(Photo Credit: SLAM Philippines)

De La Salle Green Archers def. Adamson Soaring Falcons 85-73

Notable Players

Ben Mbala, DLSU (32 points, 10 rebounds): What a return!  Ben Mbala's total domination exuded on many ends, pumping a career-high 32 points with an efficient 69% from the floor and 50% from beyond the arc.  Mbala's defensive presence down low forced the Falcons to chuck it from the outside. In the first quarter when La Salle tripled Adamson's scoring output, the Falcons' were shooting blanks. Did we mention the twirl-and-slam of Mbala at the crucial junction of the final quarter to give La Salle 1 75-66 lead when Adamson trimmed the lead to 7?

Santi Santillan, DLSU (10 points, 7 rebounds): Fast becoming the backup for Mbala, Santillan's board production gave La Salle some time to give Mbala ample rest.  Santillan's timely putback of his own miss gave some space for La Salle at 77-68 in the heat of the Adamson rally.

Robbie Manalang, Adamson (16 points, 2 rebounds): Adamson's main outside sniper was inconsistent in this game. But what was noteworthy was the stabilizing factor on offense that made the La Salle Mayhem defense stretch to enable Pappi Sarr to operate down low.

Jerie Pingoy, Adamson (9 points, 7 assists and 3 steals): In probably his best UAAP Seniors game so far, Pingoy fitted perfectly to Franz Pumaren's small ball ploy by anchoring that decisive run by Adamson.  Pingoy was everywhere on the floor, stealing the ball, dropping precise dimes to jump start the first Falcons 9-2 run to cut the lead to 13, 65-52. Pingoy was not done yet, the former Baby Tamaraw engineered another 9-0 run to cut the lead, 68-61 before the end of the 3rd quarter.  In this quarter alone, Pingoy contributed 6 points, 3 assists and 2 steals.

Quick Analysis

- The presence of Mbala sent shockwaves to Adamson as the Falcons deferred to shooting from afar than driving inside.  The dominant Green Archers first quarter provided the cushion to protect the lead in the closing minutes.

- As much as it was a game about Mayhem going against the Pumaren press, it was the imports who dominated this game. When Mbala sat out in the 3rd quarter, the Falcons took full advantage with Sarr banging inside and the rest of the fleet-footed Adamson guards piercing the lane with ease.  But when the Adamson import committed his 4th foul with barely a minute into the final quarter, La Salle protected the lead with Mbala playing bully ball.

-  La Salle has yet to fully adjust to Mbala's return as the volume of touches for Aljun Melecio, who top-scored for the Archers in their first two games produced only 2 points in 7 attempts.  The usual fluid green and white offense opted to dump the ball down to Mbala and opted out of their usual euro style basketball with crisp passes in finding their right spots.

- Adamson's small ball has huge potential having Robbie Manalang, Jerie Pingoy, Sean Manganti and Kristian Bernardo orchestrating their offense around Sarr.  Quick ball movement leading to easy baskets became the fuel that fired the Adamson comeback run.