UE Red Warriors finally bag that "W"

UE Red Warriors finally bag that "W"

by rick olivares

The University of the East Red Warriors finally made it into the win column at the expense of the floundering University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons 59-54 at the Araneta Coliseum last Saturday July 30.

UP’s Mike Silungan waxed hot in the late third quarter as he almost single-handedly erased a 7-point deficit with 10 consecutive points. The tailend faraway triple of Silungan’s explosion sent the Maroons on a dizzying 19-7 blast that saw the take the lead at the end of three quarters 40-36.

But UE started the fourth with unlikely scorers Garrick Ayala and Ebrahim Enguio hitting big shots to push the Red Warriors back into the lead 46-44 with 6:35 remaining in the game clock.

In the game’s final minutes, the two squads waged a shootout from beyond area code with UE’s Paul Lee and Paul Zamar stroking three triples while UP’s Silungan and Martin Reyes dropped a pair. Lee’s dagger with 17.7 left gave UE the final points of the game and as the buzzer sounded, he blew a kiss towards the UE gallery.

"I could not really say that I am happy. Okay lang," said a relieved UE head coach Lawrence Chongson. "For a while I was getting used to the losing. Buti na lang hindi. We're not here to win one game. It's somehow disappointing that we cannot keep our morale up. We should get our act together. I guess this would be a start, sort of a spark plug for our future games."

Lee scored 23 points to lead UE to its first win in the UAAP since last season’s Game 2 win over Ateneo in the Finals. James Martinez took care of the scoring cudgels early on by making 10 points.

Silungan led the way for UP with 20 markers while center Magi Sison chipped in 10 points.

UE 59 - Lee 23, Martinez 10, Acibar 6, Casajeros 5, Razon 4, Ayala 4, Zamar 3, Enguio 2, Reyes 2, Tagarda 0, Duran 0

UP 54 - Silungan 20, Sison 11, Padilla 6, Gomez 6, Saret 3, Reyes 3, Lopez 2, Hipolito 2, Maniego 1, Manuel 0, Juruena 0