THE UST Tiger Cubs will play for the last Final Four spot after a hotly contested 94-81 win over the University of the East Junior Warriors in the UAAP Season 79 boys’ basketball tournament at the Arena in San Juan Saturday.
The game was halted at the 58.6-second mark following a bench-clearing brawl that saw UST’s Miguel Ratuiste and UE’s Andrei Dulalia trading blows.
Trailing 56-66 midway through the third period, the Tiger Cubs dropped an 18-5 bomb to take a 74-71 lead going into the last frame.
UST pulled away for good with a 17-4 outburst at the start the fourth for a 16-point advantage.
“In the first half, we started slow and our defense was lax pero [in the second half], our offense worked and lagi namang secondary sa atin ang defense,” Tiger Cubs head coach Chris Cantonjos told the Varsitarian.
“Pina-deny natin ‘yung shooter nila kaya wala nang nagawa,” he said.
The Junior Warriors overcame an 18-28 first quarter deficit by capitalizing on UST’s string of turnovers, ending the first half with a 50-48 lead.
Miguel Ratuiste led UST with 25 points and 15 rebounds while Inand Fornillos chipped in 18 markers and 15 boards.
Cruzette Gonzales and Dustin Angeles paced UE with 23 and 22 points, respectively.
The Tiger Cubs scored 64 points in the paint against UE’s 44. They also had 45 points off the bench.
UST will face either the De La Salle-Zobel or the University of the Philippines Integrated School to vie for the last semis berth.
