THE UST Tiger Cubs ended a forgettable pre-season campaign with a 49-55 loss against De La Salle Greenhills in their Filoil Flying V Pre-season Cup encounter at The Arena in San Juan last May 29.
UST finished with a mediocre 1-4 card, losing all of their final three games by an average of 17 points.
The Tiger Cubs led at the half, 26-21, but surrendered a 16-0 run at the end of the third quarter and in the start of the fourth that allowed La Salle to take full control of the game, 48-37, with 9:33 left.
“We had control at the start but lost it toward the end because of lack of maturity,” soach Allan Ascue said. “’Di pa kami sanay sa dibdibang laban.”
UST was able to trim the gap to four points behind Eric Marcelo and Klein Borje, 47-51, with four minutes remaining. But La Salle took advantage of a technical foul slapped against Tiger Cub Ryan Syyap at the 3:20 mark, stretching the lead back to six, 47-53.
Borje answered with a layup in the ensuing possession as La Salle went scoreless for two minutes. But their woes continued when Patrick Ramirez was called for an illegal screen, which led to a Prince Rivero layup on the other end to seal the deal for La Salle.
Ice Dandan and Tristan Laman combined for 21 points for UST on a dismal 7-of-27 shooting from the field.
Rivero delivered a double-double performance of 12 points and 18 rebounds to pace La Salle, while Michael Dela Cruz added 11 markers. La Salle finished with a 3-2 card, tying National University (NU) at third place in Group A behind San Beda and Letran.
The Tiger Cubs earlier suffered two blowout defeats at the hands of the NU Bullpups and San Beda Red Cubs that blew their title hopes in the pre-season tourney.
Last May 24, the Cubs went cold in the second and third quarters en route to a 71-92 beating at the hands of NU. Dandan had 18 points on five treys but missed all seven attempts from two-point range.
UST suffered a similar fate against San Beda in their May 8 encounter, falling prey to the Red Cubs’ relentless offense, 75-100. Dandan led the Tiger Cubs with 19 points.
Despite the team's pre-season struggles, coach Ascue was convinced his wards would perform well in the coming UAAP season.
“I have a very young team, a very promising team. The kids don't give up,” Ascue said. “As of now, I can't say if we’re [100-percent] ready [for the new season], but we're getting there. We're around 80-percent ready,” he added.
