By Jerome Lagunzad
With ace forward John Cansino doing what he does best in the crunch, University of Santo Tomas survived University of the East, 106-99, yesterday to firm up its grip of the third spot in the UAAP Season 80 juniors basketball wars at The Arena in San Juan City.
The 6-foot-2 Cansino put on a monster performance with 32 points and 25 rebounds while standing tall on the Tiger Cubs’ steady finish that enabled them to hold off the Junior Warriors’ upset bid.
The hard-earned victory came on the heels of an 83-72 win over La Salle-Zobel exactly a week ago, allowing UST to finish the first-round of eliminations on a high note with a 5-2 mark, good for solo third.
Agem Miranda sizzled with a game-high 36 points, 14 of them coming in the final period, while three other teammates added at least 11 points each but they still could not prevent UE from going empty-handed with its seven straight loss.
Earlier, defending champion Far Eastern University outlasted stubborn Adamson, 96-91, in overtime.
Royce Alforque had a triple-double of 10 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists but it was RJ Abarrientos who provided clutch baskets in the extra five-minute period that helped the Baby Tamaraws dodge the Baby Falcons’ bullet.
The 5-foot-10 Abarrientos, a proud nephew of pro league great Johnny, drilled in six of his team-high 23 points in overtime, paving the way for FEU’s second straight victory and fourth overall after seven starts, moving up to solo fourth.
Jose Sabandal tallied 23 points and 11 assists while Andrey Doria and Adrian Manlapaz combined for 36 points for Adamson, which led by as many as 15 in the first half but ran out of steam in the crunch to fall down to a 3-4 record.
