UE deals La Salle a crushing loss

This appears in the Sunday August 21, 2011 edition of the Business Mirror.

UE deals La Salle a crushing loss

by rick olivares

The University of the East Red Warriors erased the stigma of a crushing loss one week earlier to hand struggling De La Salle University a stinging 74-69 loss in yesterday’s opening UAAP game at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Red Warriors, who absorbed a 91-51 massacre at the hands of the National University Bulldogs last August 14, kept the game close with a stifling 2-2-1 zone and answered every La Salle run with one of their own.

For the first time this Season 74, UE’s starting five of Paul Zamar, Lucas Tagarda, Adrian Santos, Biboy Enguio, and Erwin Duran outscored an opponent. The put up 41 points to La Salle’s 25. Although the Green Archers’ bench rose up to the challenge by coming up with 44 markers of their own, UE’s head coach Jerry Codinera said that his reserves deserve to be commended for playing their hearts out.

“I told them that we may lose 40 points, 100 points, but we have to put that behind us,” said Codinera who led UE to its last two UAAP titles in 1984 and 85 along with Allan Caidic. ““During the summer, basta close lang yung game, kaya namin. With our win and other teams losing, who knows what can happen. Basta laban lang. And we wanted to dedicate these games to our veterans who are graduating at the end of the season.”

JM Noble came off the bench to score 16 big points to backstop Zamar including a long jumper with 40 seconds left that put a serious crimp on La Salle’s last ditch rally that gave his side a 72-64 lead.

It was a painful loss for La Salle who lost a heartbreaker to Adamson last Saturday when Alex Nuyles buried a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer. And with 1:08 left in the first quarter against UE, forward Yutien Andrada crashed to the floor during a fastbreak opportunity. The momentary stoppage cast a pall on the game as La Salle’s players huddled around their fallen teammate. “It’s just an ankle sprain,” said DLSU trainer Dan Rose. “But he’ll be under observation. Andrada also hurt his right knee in their season opener against FEU when he banged in on the coliseum hardcourt.

Although La Salle held on for a 19-17 first quarter lead, the Red Warriors took control of the second period as they drove hard to the basket and put points on the board from free throws. UE outrebounded DLSU 45-40 and out-assisted them 15-12.

The win put UE at 2-7 for a tie with UP while La Salle fell to 4-5 the same record as UST which fell in the second game to Ateneo de Manila which thrashed them 82-57 to remain undefeated at 9-0.