Maroons polish off Tigers

University of the Philippines stepped on the gas pedal in the fourth quarter to shake off a sticky University of Santo Tomas for a bounce back 83-73 win in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 87 men’s basketball tournament second round Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Fighting Maroons outgunned the Growling Tigers, 24-11, in the last 10 minutes of the match, which had been tight in the first three periods before UP made a decisive run to get back into the win column for a 7-1 win-loss card.

Terrence Fortea was lights out from the outside, hitting 4-of-5 triples, three coming in the final canto, and scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half for UP, which completed an eliminations sweep of UST and rebounded from a painful end of first round loss to defending champion De La Salle University last week.

Francis Lopez had 20 points and seven rebounds, Harold Alarcon added 11 points, Quentin Millora Brown tallied 10 points while JD Cagulangan returned after a two-game absence due to an undisclosed illness to finish with nine points.

UP used a blistering 18-5 run to turn a 65-61 deficit early in the fourth quarter into a 77-67 advantage with 4:09 left after a pair of charities from Cagulangan.

The Tigers cut it to just seven twice but Fortea fired back with treys each time to secure the victory.

Mo Tounkara led UST, which slid to a 4-4 mark, with 24 points and nine rebounds, Nick Cabanero got 17 and Christian Manaytay ended up with 12.

As expected, the rematch turned into a tight tug-of-war with no team giving an inch in the first half.

The Fighting Maroons raced to a 13-7 lead to open the game only to see the Tigers give chase for a tight race.

UST eventually took the driver’s seat 36-32 in the second quarter after a Manaytay trey albeit brief as UP answered with six straight points punctuated by a thunderous slamdunk by Lopez off a steal with 1:49 left.

Nic Cabanero gave the Tigers back the lead with a triple but the Fighting Maroons returned fire with five straight points capped by a JD Cagulangan three-pointer for a 43-31 UP lead.

Mo Tounkara knotted it at 43 with a buzzer-beating putback entering halftime.

Lopez was the lone UP player in double-figures after the first half with 13 while Cabanero and Tounkara had 11 and 10, respectively, for UST.

The Tigers and Fighting Maroons had 19 boards each but UST’s bench did a better job than their counterparts with a 25-13 advantage in bench points in the first half.