UE faces rebuilding Adamson for 2nd win

By Anthony Divinagracia Posted Jul 19th 2014

Beating a lightweight team on opening day doesn’t mean anything for University of the East (UE) coach Derek Pumaren.

Yet Pumaren and company will have to wait a little more before reinforcing that victory over the perceived heavyweights of the 77^th UAAP men’s basketball tournament.

The Warriors for now are dead-set on repeating that sterling first-game onslaught against another lightweight unit in the rebuilding Adamson University today at the Araneta Coliseum.

Game time is set at 4 p.m. with the Warriors aiming for a 2-0 start in recent years.

“By winning against UP still doesn’t prove us anything. We’re still in the lower half,” Pumaren said at the heels of UE’s 87-59 thrashing of the hapless Maroons last Saturday.

UE however proved that it can get the job done with star guard Roi Sumang spending more time on the bench.

Sumang scored only seven points but issued six assists to underscore his role as UE’s top playmaker.

Dan Alberto, Sumang’s back-up, did most of the killing for the Warriors, rifling five three-pointers en route to a career-high 15 points.

Veteran banger Chris Javier ably backstopped imports Charles Mammie and Mustafa Arafat underneath with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting and nine rebounds.

Despite their brilliant offensive display, Pumaren remains wary of the Warriors’ execution.

“We committed a lot of turnovers. We had more turnovers than UP. If it’s a close game we’ll be in big trouble,” he said, noting UE’s 28 miscues against the Maroons.

Adamson is as error-prone as the Warriors in its first game, coming 22 blunders in its 57-79 loss to Ateneo de Manila University last Sunday.

The Falcons shot a woeful 16-of-52 from the field, underscoring Adamson coach Kenneth Duremdes’ limited scoring options.

Jansen Rios and rookie Ivan Villanueva led Adamson with 15 points each but failed to draw enough support from the other veterans.

“During our tune-up games, we always trail early but we recover. This time, we weren’t able to come back,” Dumremdes said. “We’re still tyring to find solutions for it.”

The game will air live at 4 p.m. on ABS-CBN Sports+Action channel 23, BALLS HD SkyCable 167, uaapsports.tv, iwantv.com, TFC Bro and tfc.tv with a same day replay at 10 p.m. on BALLS SkyCable channel 34/ Destiny Cable channel 36.