The Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena was filled with green and blue as fans alike wait for the game between The Adamson University (AdU) Soaring Falcons versus the De la Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers that started at 4:00PM, 13 October 2018. This is the final game in the first round of the Men’s basketball of UAAP’s Season 81.
The game went underway with the first few minutes of exciting plays. A notable block by Sean Manganti led the Adamsonian crowd to cheer as it led to the first points of the game. Jerrick Ahanmisi was on fire as he continued scoring with help from Sean Manganti’s steals and defensive pressures on the Archer’s opposition. However, Papi Sarr remained silent as he garnered rebounds but was also losing the ball due to the many double team encounters from the Archers’ big men. The Soaring Falcons did rally at the end despite not being totally in sync, ending the first quarter with AdU 18 – DLSU 22.
The second quarter went underway with the Falcons second string take over to help the starters recover. Ahanmisiwas struggling from the three-point line yet produced a defensive effort on the glass, grabbing rebounds in order to set the plays in motion. Scores from Jerom Lastimosa and Papi Sarr were productive, with Jonathan Espeleta and Vince Magbuhos contributing on the offensive rebounds. The second quarter ended with an glimpse of hope for the Soaring Falcons, AdU 32 – 33 DLSU.
The half-time performance from the DLSU and AdU’s own cheer squad team lit up the Arena’s crowd, giving the crowd a much-needed boost before the start of the third quarter.
The Soaring Falcon kept pushing through; with a constant full court press to just keep even with the Archers. This eventually gave key plays from Ahanmisi and Manganti, getting them a good chance of shooting freethrows. This quarter started showing some animosity since fouls after fouls were being called.
The fourth quarter was an exchange of defensive plays from both teams, pushing it to a thrilling 64 – 64 tie game. The overtime saw Papi Sarr fouling out, causing some trouble with the other veteran bigs of DLSU. Despite putting up the fight, the Archers were on a roll in scoring, going 8 – 0 run against the Soaring Falcons in less than 2 minutes.
But to no avail since the DLSU Green Archer’s lead was too wide a margin to properly have the time to dominate. The Soaring Falcon’s scored the last three points with the final score AdU 78 – 79 DLSU.
