De La Salle University shrugged off a late rally by University of Santo Tomas to carve out an 86-77 victory for its third straight win in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 88 men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Green Archers improved their record to 5-3, creating a three-way tie with the Tigers and defending champion University of the Philippines for second to fourth place.

“We know how strong UST is right now. They are really playing tremendous basketball. We just made sure that we’re gonna be coming in confident knowing we prepared for whatever UST will throw at us,” Green Archers head coach Topex Robinson after avenging their 84-93 loss to the Tigers in the first round.

Trailing by as much as 22 late in the second quarter and 13 entering the fourth, UST cut its deficit to just six on a shot-clock-beating three-pointer by Gelo Crisostomo with 3:29 remaining, 70-76.

But EJ Gollena answered with a booming triple from the corner for La Salle while drawing a foul, though he missed the free throw.

UST narrowed the lead to six once again, but Gollena drilled another dagger three from the same spot to give the Green Archers an 82-73 advantage with just 39.1 seconds left.

JC Macalalag led La Salle with 18 points, four rebounds, three assists, and one steal — his best game of the tournament after playing with a mask in previous games due to a nose injury earlier in the season.

Jacob Cortez contributed 12 points despite shooting 5-of-17 from the field, while Vhoris Marasigan and Earl Abadam added 10 points each.

Gollena and Lebron Jhames Daep scored eight points apiece, while Most Valuable Player frontrunner Mike Phillips was limited to six points but tallied 13 rebounds, six assists, one steal, and one block.

UST suffered back-to-back losses.

Nigerian rookie center Collins Akowe led the Tigers with 20 points and 14 rebounds, while Crisostomo added 15 points and eight rebounds.

Box scores:

La Salle (86) – Macalalag 18, Cortez 12, Marasigan 10, Abadam 10, Daep 8, Gollena 8, Phillips 6, Dungo 5, Quines 5, Pablo 4, Nwankwo 0.    

UST (77) – Akowe 20, Crisostomo 15, Llemit 13, Cabañero 12, Danting 5, Acido 4, Padrigao 3, Paranada 3, Calum 2, Buenaflor 0, Estacio 0.      

Quarter scores: 24-17, 52-36, 64-51, 86-77.