MANILA – University of the Philippines Maroons recovered from a slow start to waylay Gilas Pilipinas, 78-72, in the 2018 FilOil Flying V Cup at the San Juan Arena.
Juan Gomez de Llano and Jun Manzo spearheaded the uprising for the Maroons on Tuesday night for its second consecutive victory in Group A of the competition.
Gilas Pilipinas dropped to 1-4.
Trailing by as much as 16 points late in the third quarter, Maroons made its move behind De Llano and Manzo to cut the national team’s advantage to 63-53 with nine minutes left in the game.
Another 12-2 scoring run by Maroons allowed them to tie the score with 5:12 remaining before taking the lead at 76-69 following a three-pointer from Manzo.
De Llano and Manzo finished the match with 22 points apiece. Bright Akhuetie chipped in double-double 16 points and 13 rebounds.
“That was a something we can go back to every time. A win we need to remember, going against best of college players and holding our ground no matter what,” said Maroons head coach Dolreich Perasol.
For Gilas, Arvin Tolentino led the way with 14 points. George Isaac Go added 12 markers while Ricci Rivero and Kobe Paras had 9 and 8 points, respectively.
Meanwhile, Far Eastern University Tamaraws kept its unbeaten record with an 87-85 escape over Jose Rizal University Heavy Bombers.
Hubert Cani, Joseph Nunag and Bradley Bienes had 13 points each to lead the way for Tamaraws (3-0)./PN
