The DLSU Green Archers took home the trophy of the Fil Oil Flying V Invitational Cup vs the NCAA Defending Champs, the San Beda Red Lions, by beating them 89-81. A really worthy game to watch as both teams played their hearts out. Cholo Villanueva, TY Tang and JV Casio carried the scoring cudgels for the Archers by scoring 23, 22 and 14 pts respectively.

Cholo Villanueva was the X-Factor for the Archers as he defended Pong Escobal well and provided the steady catch-up points whenever the lead was lost to San Beda. The inside men of DLSU had a hard time creating points with the presence of Aljamal and Sam Ekwe in the paint, hence DLSU had to rely on the offense of its back court. Case in point, Ekwe had 2 blocks on Rico Maierhofer in the game.

It was clearly seen in the half court stats that the La Salle big men were outclassed as SBC got 26 rebounds (8 of which belonged to Ekwe) vs the Archer’s 19. SBC also outshot DLSU in the first half as they got a 47% clip from the field vs DLSU’s 36%. The black spot on their first half performance however were their 10 turnovers vs the Archers 5.

The lead would swing to San Beda’s favor whenever the starters of DLSU were taken out and replaced with the second unit. That’s the reason why the 2nd and 3rd quarter scores would always end with San Beda in the lead. Even San Beda’s 2nd unit, anchored by Menor & Marcelo, would run rings around the 2nd unit of DLSU.

The turning point for the Red Lions was when the heart and soul of the team, Pong Escobal, fouled out with still 2:46 remaining in the fourth. This made it difficult for them to claw back from the 79-71 deficit that they were in. DLSU’s defense also clamped down on San Beda on the fourth, the team was only able to make about 5 FG in the quarter, with the first FG happening at the 5:31 mark. Kudos to PJ Walsham for playing good one-on-one defense on Sam Ekwe, now I know that some of that chubbiness in his body isn’t just flab. They were able to thwart the fastbreaking play style of San Beda which called far long passes in the back court to a quick receiving player (usually Ogie Menor). This play to bring the ball upcourt quickly also made it difficult for DLSU to set up their trapping defense (unless they really intended to not use it that much.) What also made matters worse for SBC was missing some key Free Throws in the fourth.

DLSU was able to generate a 13-1 run in the fourth to take back the lead from the Lions, who were leading 59-63 at the end of the 3rd, to make it 72-64. The lead was taken on an opening 3 from JV and twinner from Kish Co then followed by another 3 from JV.

A Narration of some the Play in the 4Q:

1. TY makes a 3 pointer on his trademark corner, which has him passing the ball to a post player during the inbound then receiving it back once he hits the arc, made it 77-70.
2. Then a TY steal punctuated by a Cholo fadeaway made it a 79-71 lead.
3. James Mangahas 2 FT’s made it a two point lead after which Sam Ekwe answered with a thunderous Alley-Oop to make it 81-73.
4. Cholo then bricked his 2 FT’s while Kish Co made a 1-2, 82-73 all.
5. Aljamal made a shot to minus 2 from the lead.
6. TY committed an offensive foul which Menor converted to a 2pt drive.
7. A shot clock violation with still 1:04 remaining forced Coach Franz to call a timeout to give his boys some direction.
8. TY then blocked a driving Hermida during his lay-up which sent the bench and Coach Frankie Lim into an uproar because no foul was called.
9. With the focus now on the scoring back court, TY was able to sneak a bullet pass to a sneaking PJ Walsham who scored two in the paint with 32.6 sec remaining making it 84-77.
10. With 25.7 remaining Walsham was able to corner a rebound and was consequently fouled. He made only 1-2 FT.
11. Rico then fouls Ekwe at the same time fouling out from the game. Sam makes 2-2 FT at 22.8secs remaining (85-79.)
12. Aljamal then missed on a 3 (13.6 sec) at the next offensive possession.
13. Sam Ekwe was fouled by Cholo but he bricked his next 2 FT’s. (87-79) 11.2 remaining
14. Aljamal then incurs his 5th PF which had Mangahas shooting FT’s afterwards to make it 89-79 and to ice the game for the Archers….

TY Tang went home the best player of the game by tallying 22 pts, 6 rebs and 12 assists. Better than that, he also took home with him the coveted MVP of the Tournament Award. Sam Ekwe, the Nigerian center of the Red Lions, grabbed a spectacular 26 rebounds in that game alone.

During the post game interview, TY Tang mentioned that the team was very “Hungry” entering the UAAP after being 1 year out because of a suspension. Coach Franz pointed out however, that because they won two big preseason tournaments, DLSU would be on the radar scope of all the other teams in the league. A hefty analysis from a multi-titled coach.

DLSU - Villanueva 23, Tang 22, Casio 14, Mangahas 9, Maierhofer 8, Walsham 7, Co 4, Ilad 2, Atkins 0, Malabes 0, Cua 0.
SBC - Menor 18, Escobal 16, Ekwe 13, Aljamal 10, Hermida 10, Marcelo 6, Lanete 4, Maggay 4, Tirona 0, Caram 0, Tecson 0, Galinato 0.

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 Tags: Filoil Flying V Invitational Cup Finals, DLSU Green Archers, San Beda Red Lions