THE La Salle Green Archers maintained their seemingly unbreakable dominance of the Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras as they handed the Cebu champions their second loss in a row, 90-80, in the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup yesterday at the Arena in San Juan.
Joshua Caracut continued to impress as he peppered SWU’s porous defense with 19 points. Another newcomer, Josh Torralba, also provided a lift with 17 markers while old reliable Jeron Teng added 14 for the Green Archers improved to 4-1 (win-loss).
The Cobras, on the other hand, suffered a double-whammy barely 24 hours after losing to the Mapua Cardinals in their opening game, 73-81. Cesafi MVP Mark Jayven Tallo led the Cobras with 17 points while new reinforcement Boko Mupungo bounced back from his two-point debut by notching 14. Jasper Parker and Daryl Goloran had 13 each.
La Salle got off to a fast start and led, 27-15, after the first. It quickly ballooned to 35-18 after two free-throws by Torralba but SWU relented and got back to within four, 51-55, as Tallo, Mupungo and Goloran got going with 3:29 to go in the third.
The Cobras kept coming and pulled to 70-76 after a Parker lay-in with 6:29 left. But that proved to be their last hurrah as La Salle scored the next nine markers to push their lead back to 15.
SWU guns for their first win against the University of the Philippines on Wednesday.
BOX SCORES:
DLSU (90) – Caracut 18, Torralba 17, Teng 14, Torres 10, Perkins 9, Muyang 8, Tratter 5, Go 3, Navarro 2, Van Opstal 2, Gob 2, Pascual 0
SWU (80) – Tallo 17, Mupungo 14, Parker 13, Goloran 13, Holper 8, Auditor 8, Luz 5, Habagat 2, Bregondo 0, Acuno 0.