Lady Tams through roller coaster for fourth-straight win

By Donjie Carreon Posted Jul 15th 2013

Far Eastern University continued to remain unbeaten in 76th UAAP women’s basketball tournament but it had to go through a scare from the University of Sto. Tomas for its fourth win, 52-51, as a series of late miscues almost cost the defending champs the game on Sunday at the Flying V Filoil Arena in San Juan.

Camille Sambille led FEU with 18 points and 13 boards, seven of which came from the offensive end, while Vangie Soriano had 10 points, eight rebounds and five steals. UST got 13 points and 14 rebounds from Maica Cortes and 11 each from Jeannine Ong and Marian Mejia.

Half way through the fourth quarter, the Lady Tamaraws built a 52-40 lead on a left elbow jumper by Sambile. The Tigresses, however, responded with nine straight points to narrow the gap, while preventing the Lady Tamaraws from converting any of its shots, including an easy putback by Sambile with a minute left.

UST failed to score on the next possession, but Soriano turned the ball over after the Tigresses trapped her near the right three point elbow. With five seconds remaining, Mejia converted a tough driving lay-up to the middle and drew contact but missed the bonus free-throw allowing the Lady Tamaraws to escape.

FEU coach Allan Albano joked that he was just trying to replicate the excitement from the escape act the men’s team pulled over De La Salle University on Saturday, but admitted that his team made it tougher with mental lapses.

“We built the lead through hustle and defense… (But we allowed UST to get into the game) with our mental lapses and poor decision making,” he said.

It was the third straight heart-breaking loss for the Tigresses, who would have been among the league leaders if not for its repeated late game miscues.

In other games, the Lady Archers also kept its perfect record as they used a strong second half to take the fight out of the University of the Philippines Lady Maroons, 59-39. 

The first half ended with La Salle just ahead 26-22, but it held UP to just six points in the third quarter while putting up 19 to pull away. Ara Abaca had 12 points, 11 rebounds and four assists for La Salle.

Adamson University, meanwhile, whipped the University of the East, 91-52, as the Lady Falcons scored more than 20 points in each quarter, while the Lady Warriors barely made 10 except in the fourth. Joy Cochio topscored for Adamson with 20.

Finally, National University bounced the Atene de Manila University, 63-57, on a balanced attack led by Andrea Tongco, who had 13.