Falcons devour hapless Maroons

Adamson coach Leo Austria knew something gruesome is in the offing.

The Falcons provided the affirmation – with plenty of help from a visibly disorganized and undermanned University of the Philippines (UP).

With guns blazing on all cylinders, the redemption-savvy Falcons pounced on the short-handed Maroons from the get-go en route to a lopsided 74-51 victory yesterday in the 73rd UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

“This game is a bonus for us. We expected to win convincingly considering that UP is without its four key players,” Austria said of the Maroons, who missed the services of veterans Woody Co and Mark Lopez to injuries, and the suspended Alvin Padilla.

Rookie Mike Silungan meanwhile begged off from the game due to flu.

Alex Nuyles, Roider Cabrera, Jerick Canada, and Janus Lozada punished the Maroons’ puny zone all game long as they combined for eight of the Falcons’ 10 triples for a 43.5 percent clip.

The fleet-footed Nuyles led four Falcons in double figures, tallying 14 points on 2-of-3 shooting from three-point range, while Cabrera, Canada, and Lozada added 13, 12, and 11, respectively.

“We don’t have to be complacent. But I believe we have learned our lesson after losing to UE. You simply cannot underestimate anyone in the UAAP,” Austria added after his wards scooped their eight win in 11 starts.

True enough, the Falcons showed no signs of complacency as they put the game away as early as the second quarter, racing to their biggest lead at 43-14. Cabrera was instrumental in that pivotal stretch as he knocked in 11 points spiked by three triples.

But UP still went despite a short rotation as veteran Magi Sison presided over an 11-3 run that brought the deficit down to a more decent level at 32-49 before the Falcons closed the third with a 9-0 blitz sparked by a Lozada trey going into the non-bearing fourth quarter.

So dominant were the Falcons that Austria managed to field almost the entire Adamson line-up whose reserves coughed off a 50-9 bench scoring advantage against UP

Sison registered the only double-digit outputs for UP, finishing with 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting on top of 17 rebounds and a block.

The loss extended UP’s winless skein to 11 games at the heels of its pending appeal before the UAAP technical committee regarding two no-calls during its controversial 59-61 defeat against National University on Sunday.

The Scores:

ADU 74 – Nuyles 14, Cabrera 13, Canada 12, Lozada 11, Colina 6, Manyara 4, Camson 4, Etrone 3, Alvarez 3, Monteclaro 2, Galinato 2, Stinnett 0, Rios 0, Olalia 0, Brondial 0.

UP 51 – Sison 20, Juruena 7, Reyes Martin 6, Maniego 6, Manuel 5, Reyes Mikey 3, Saret 2, Gomez 2, Pascual 0, Evangelista 0, Hipolito 0, Gingerich 0.

Quarter scores: 22-9, 43-16, 58-35, 74-51.

Anthony Divinagracia, UAAP Sports