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Casio show marks Archers’ win |
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Source : Staff
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Sunday, 13 July 2008 00:33 |
 Never under coach Franz Pumaren’s watch has La Salle lost its first two games of the season.
The Green Archers made sure that won’t happen when they pulled off a 73-62 victory over the older and taller FEU Tamaraws in the 71st UAAP season at Philsports Arena yesterday.
“Never. It has never happened,” said Pumaren when asked if there was a time, in his 10 years as La Salle coach, where the team had gone off to a 0-2 start.
He has JV Casio, his veteran, to thank for.
“Well, it was a JV Casio show,” said Pumaren inside the Philsports pressroom which he said was “even bigger” than their locker room.
Casio, who played a very big role in La Salle’s amazing comeback to win the title last year, exploded with a career-high 29 points, 10 of them coming in the fourth quarter.
“We just wanted to show that this La Salle team won’t change. That it won’t stop until the final second,” said Casio, who nearly cramped out after 28 minutes on the floor.
La Salle lost to Ateneo last week in its first game – actually its first big game – of the season, and another loss to FEU, the slight favorite heading into the game, would have been awful.
The Tamaraws seemed in control of the match until Simon Atkins, Peejay Barua, Bade Malabes and Casio hit big triples in the second half, each one helping break the Tamaraws’ backs.
The UAAP board met yesterday and came to an agreement that wearing of IDs by team officials during a game will continue to be implemented.
“Along with it the other rules of the UAAP will be implemented fairly and consistently,” said Herc Callanta of host UP in his capacity as secretary of the board.
The board said the technical foul on La Salle before the start of the game against Ateneo was for delay of the game after Pumaren entered the court not wearing his ID.
Earlier, Santo Tomas picked up the pieces following a five-point loss to UE, beating State University, 94-75, in preparation for a big game against La Salle on Thursday.
Dylan Ababou, coming off a hand injury sustained during his PBL stint, scored a dozen points in only 11 minutes of action, then said he’s just getting started.
“We wanted to win the title last year but La Salle took it away from us. This year is a good chance for us to prove that we can be champions again,” said Ababou.
The Tigers, the 2006 champions, are not in tip-top shape two games into the season. A couple more players standing close to 6’4” are recovering from injuries as well.
Coach Pido Jarencio said 2007 MVP Jervy Cruz is still feeling his game after a hamstring injury while Khasim Mirza and Allein Maliksi are just on the road to recovery.
The Tigers trailed in the early going, 17-9, but when they got going they never looked back. They took a 28-21 lead and it went up to 61-43 en route to a 1-1 slate.
The Maroons, now assured of a better finish than last year, came off an 86-72 win over National U last week and dropped to 1-1. They went winless in 14 games last year.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 13 July 2008 00:37 )
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