MANILA – University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers fell short of going all the way in the NBA 5v5 tournament after an 86-67 loss to Zhongtian Qilin Society in the finals at the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower in Shanghai, China.
Playing its second game in a span of four hours on Sunday night, the Growling Tigers managed to keep in step with Zhongtian until midway in the fourth quarter. The latter, however, had timely hits to escape with the win.
Soulemane Chabi Yo finished with double-double 21 points and 15 rebounds while Negrenses Mark Nonoy and Rhenz Abando chipped in 12 and 10 markers, respectively.
Down by 10 points at the early going of the fourth period, the Tigers came to as close as 55-62 with over four minutes in the match on free throws and a triple by Crispin John Cansino.
Zhongtian then bombarded the Tigers as Hou Ziyu and Hu Liangyu spearheaded a huge 23-10 scoring run. They cruised to their largest lead of the match at 21 points and to win the RMB 500,000 top prize.
Tigers head coach Aldin Ayo said he was satisfied with his team’s showing in the two-day basketball team that featured four of the top amateur teams in China and teams from Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.
“Malalakas ang nakalaban namin dito so I am satisfied that we were able to finish at second,” Ayo told Panay News. “Magandang build up rin ito para sa UAAP campaign namin.”
On their way to the championship round, the Growling Tigers scored a come-from-behind 84-74 win over Dispatch on Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday, UST defeated DK Basketball Team, 82-74./PN
