Archers demolish Maroons

By Jonas Terrado - Manila Bulletin - August 11, 2008

Reigning champion De La Salle shook off a slow start to beat University of the Philppines, 81-61, and firm up its hold of second place in the 71st UAAP basketball tournament at the PhilSports Arena.

Rico Maierhofer came off the bench to score 19 points as the Archers, who also drew big games from the usually reliable JV Casio, James Mangahas and Peejay Barua, improved their record to 7-2.

The 6-foot-6 Maierhofer also grabbed 13 rebounds in 22 minutes of action while Casio and Mangahas chipped in 17 and 16 points, respectively. Barua tallied 10 markers.

In the second game, University of the East went full throttle in the final half to crush National University, 67-50.

Former PBL slam-dunk champion Elmer Espiritu and Hans Thiele led the Red Warriors’ charge, scoring 13 and 11 points, most of them in the last two frames to pull away from a tight first half action.

The 6-foot-5 Thiele and 6-foot-4 Espiritu combined for 27 boards as the Warriors improved to 5-4.
With the score tied at 19 at halftime, the Warriors broke the game wide apart by unloading 16 straight points. They even padded their lead to 20 late in the payoff period.

"We were too tight in the first half but naging relaxed sila in the second half," said UE coach Dindo Pumaren. "The difference of this game and the last was nakagawa kami ng mga stops unlike noong last game."

La Salle led by only four points at halftime before Maierhofer and Mangahas combined for 14 points to stretch their lead to 59-48.

Barua also contributed eight in the final period to complete the dominating performance in the final half.

"Actually it’s not the start that we really wanted to achieve, we were flat from the start, we just came off a tough game against UE. It’s a good thing that the veterans took over the game," said La Salle coach Franz Pumaren.

Martin Reyes led UP in a losing effort with 21 points and five rebounds with Woody Co and Jay Agbayani nailing nine markers apiece.

The Maroons, this year’s hosts, fell to 2-7.

Trailing 7-5 early in the game, the Archers made a 14-2 blast with Maierhofer scoring the last 10 to take a 19-9 first quarter advantage.

The Maroons rallied to within 30-34 as Co and Reyes combined for 13 points. Kevin Astorga and Magi Sison also contributed in the second quarter to make the contest look exciting.

But the excitement UP supporters had hoped never materialized as Maierhofer and company started to impose their will. Maierhofer highlighted his impressive performance by making two of three tries from the three-point area.