De La Salle University displayed tremendous grace under pressure to book a 80-72 victory over University of the Philippines to conquer Season 88 University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Mike Phillips was impressive in his final game in college while Vhoris Marasigan delivered big shots down the stretch to lead the Green Archers to a heart-stopping victory in win-or-go-home Game 3 of this best-of-three title series that was witnessed by a massive crowd of more than 24,000.

With that, La Salle secured its 11th men’s basketball title, the second under Topex Robinson, who assumed the coaching role in Season 86.

It was a sweet victory for La Salle, which blew hot and cold in the eliminations before advancing to the Final Four as the fourth seed. There, they stunned topseed National University before winning Game 1, 74-70, on 10 December before dropping Game 2, 63-66, to arrange a winner-take-all Game 3.

Marasigan delivered a pair of big shots down the stretch to claw their way back from a 66-67 cushion into a safe 70-67 lead entering the last two-minute mark.

Then, Cortez scored from the charity stripe before Phillips pulled down a big rebound, allowing La Salle to dictate the tempo while UP melted under the bright lights of the UAAP finals.