Bautista carries FEU in OT win over Ateneo

Far Eastern University turned to Jorick Bautista to eke out a hard-earned 66-65 overtime win over Ateneo de Manila University in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 87 men’s basketball tournament Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The third year guard was lights out in the extra five minutes as he drained eight of the Tamaraws’ 15 points in the extension to gift new head coach Sean Chambers his first victory in the league after six tries.

Bautista finished with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field and grabbed five rebounds for FEU, which tied National University with a 1-5 win-loss card.

“I just told myself to do the right things, and I’ll get rewarded in the end. Thankfully, I got rewarded,” said Bautista, who scored 14 points following his technical foul late in the third.

“I just stayed composed and just did my job inside the court. I was struggling (at first) so I just tried working on my defense and got my confidence from there.” 

Bautista nailed back-to-back jumpers to put the Tamaraws up, 57-54, early in the overtime. He gave FEU a 63-57 cushion with a gutsy pop up jumper over the outstretched hand of Chris Koon with 34.1 seconds left.

It was enough to weather the Blue Eagles’ late fightback with Mohammed Konateh swishing in the insurance pair of foul shots in the dying seconds before Shawn Tuano connected a trey with 0.1 tick left for the final count.

Royce Alforque had 12 points, Konateh had 10 markers and 18 boards while rookies Janrey Pasaol and Veejay Pre added 10 points each for FEU.

Ateneo overhauled a 51-46 deficit in the fourth quarer after Sean Quitevis drained a trey followed by Jared Bahay’s pair of foul shots to knot the count.

Both teams had their chances of winning the game in regulation but Kristian Porter bricked his back-to-back tries from the outside for Ateneo before Alforque missed his shot on the other end. Porter had another crack to win it but again missed his triple before the buzzer.

The Blue Eagles dropped to a 1-4 card.

Koon got 12 points while Bahay and Porter chipped in 11 markers each.      

Box scores:

FEU (66) --- Bautista 18, Alforque 12, Konateh 10, Pasaol 10, Pre 10, Montemayor 4, Daa 2, Ona 0, Nakai 0, Bagunu 0, Jones 0.     

Ateneo (65) --- Koon 12, Bahay 11, Porter 11, Quitevis 9, Tuano 6, Lazaro 6, Gamber 6, Espinosa 3, Balogun 1, Bongo 0, Ong 0, Espina 0.     

Quarters: 19-14, 27-32, 40-41, 51-51, 66-65