SOUTHWESTERN University (SWU) stormed past University of the Philippines (UP), 73-60, on Wednesday to finally book its first win in three games in the Filoil Flying V Premiere Cup basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.
The reigning Cebu Schools Athletic Federation Inc. champion Cobras dominated the entire contest, booking commanding leads of 13-9 in the first quarter, 32-20 at halftime and 52-40 after three periods.
The visitors from Cebu found their offense from the outside with John Auditor having a hot afternoon to finish with 16 points, most of them coming from jumpers.
SWU’s 17-year-old rookie big man form Congo, Boko Mupungo, finally had a breakout game in the tournament and had a huge double-double of 22 points and 18 rebounds.
The Fighting Maroons started with eight players as the rest of the team, including Paolo Romero, Paul Desiderio and Lionel Tekoudjou, had their academic finals on Wednesday.
Gelo Vito had 13 points, Paul Desiderio made 12, and Diego Dario and Jarell Lim had 11 points each for the Fighting Maroons.
University of Santo Tomas (UST), meanwhile, survived the offensive streak put up by Lyceum of the Philippines University in the fourth quarter to eke out a 72-66 victory.
Lyceum, behind Cameeronian Guy Mbida and Shaq Alanes, cut the lead down to three, 65-62, approaching the final two-minute mark. But Eduardo Daquioag buried a triple and Christian Kakonda nailed an under-basket stab to bail UST out of trouble, 70-62, 1:05 left.
The Pirates closed within striking distance, 70-66, after two free throws from Jebb Bulawan and a lay-up by Edcor Marata, but Daquioag’s free throws with 23.9 seconds sealed the win for UST.
It was the first game in 11 days for Lyceum, which will play the rest of the year without team captain Dexter Zamora (ACL).
The Tigers improved to 3-3 won-loss, while the Pirates dropped to 1-5.
Daquioag topscored for UST with 16 points, while Kent Lao contributed 15 points and Mario Bonleon had eight markers.
Mbida had 21 points to lead Lyceum, which also drew 13 points from Wilson Baltazar and 11 from Jeb Bulawan.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza