Sunday, August 8, 2010

Adamson pips La Salle for 70-68 win

This appears in the Monday August 9, 2010 edition of the Business Mirror.


Adamson pips La Salle for 70-68 win
by rick olivares

In a tightly fought match, it pays to have an ace up one’s sleeve. Adamson University played man-to-man defense through their first six games but with the De La Salle Green Archers on the brink of taking the game, Falcons head coach Leo Austria sprung his surprise – a tough 2-3 zone that choked the offense out of the Green Archers who were held to 9 points in the final quarter en route to a 70-68 victory.

At the end of the 3rd Quarter, La Salle was able to put some distance between themselves and Adamson when Philipp Paredes scored over Falcon center Mike Galinato to make it 59-52.

However come the payoff period, the zone forced La Salle to 30% shooting (4-13 shots) and to 9 turnovers. Point guard Lester Alvarez presided over Adamson’s fiery rally and when he scored 7 straight points to bring them to a point behind La Salle 64-63.

After a La Salle miss, Alvarez collected the ball and dashed on the break. He found a streaking Alex Nuyles on the left wing who had to pump the ball under the outstretched arms of La Salle’s Luigi dela Paz for a 69-68 lead; their first since Will Stinnett’s lay-up early in the first period that gave them a 6-3 lead.

On the next play, second year forward Eric Camson deflected Archer Joel Tolentino’s drop pass to teammate Yutien Andrada to secure the possession and force La Salle to foul and put the Falcons on the line.

Camson only made one free throw to give Adamson a 70-68 lead and in La Salle’s last offensive, Stinnett and Alvarez harried dela Paz who lost the ball on a drive to the hoop.

The victory put Adamson at second with a 5-2 record behind undefeated FEU that swept the first round to go 7-0. La Salle fell to 4-3.

Jan Colina scored 16 points for Adamson while Camson added 15, Alvarez 12, and Stinnett 10.

Luigi dela Paz topped La Salle with 13 markers while Joshua Webb, Samuel Marata, and Tolentino chipped in 10 apiece.

The 5-2 start is Adamson’s best since their 90’s heyday when they had Marlou Aquino, EJ Fiehl, and Kenneth Duremdes in harness.

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Before the game began, I was talking with Ateneo's Justin Chua and he was saying that the Falcons were such a tough team to play. When I asked him why, he said that they have some darn good players who are heady vets but they also have a damn good coach in Leo Austria.


Am not sure if this was Adamson's line-up during the last time they went 5-2: Bong dela Cruz at point, Kenneth Duremdes at the two, Ronnie Cahanding at the three, Vanni Pineda at the four and Marlou Aquino at center. EJ Feihl came off the bench. Can anyone verify this? Tagal na kasi. This line-up looks great post-PBA careers and all but back then Ronnie Cahanding was the man.


One of the more memorable games I watched back then was this Adamson-La Salle match where Marlou and Jun Limpot were going at each other. They dunked on one another, they blocked each other... but the Archers won that game. I know Kenneth missed a shot that could have tied the match but La Salle got the rebound and scored to put the game away. That was at Blue Eagle Gym. Grabe yung match na yan.

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