THE UST Growling Tigresses secured the first Final Four slot of the #UAAPSeason88 women’s basketball tournament after taking a dominant 95-66 win over the Adamson Lady Falcons on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at the Mall of Asia Arena.
With their ninth win in a row, the Tigresses will be advancing to the Final Four for the seventh consecutive season.
“It’s a total team effort for the girls today, especially on our defense in the second half,” UST head coach Haydee Ong said postgame.
“We started to pick up [on our defense] and limited Adamson to 26 points… We’re happy that we got our ninth win today,” she added.
Tigress winger Kent Pastrana notched a double-double, dropping 19 points on 7-of-14 from the field and 12 rebounds. Karylle Sierba scored 13 markers, while Coi Danganan and Rachelle Ambos racked up 11 each.
The Lady Falcons opened the game with a close 26-24 lead behind buckets from Elaine Etang and Chescka Apag.
UST, led by efforts from Pastrana and Danganan, outscored Adamson in the second salvo to overtake the advantage, 51-40.
The Tigresses continued to assert their dominance in the third canto as Sierba sparked an 8-0 blitz, widening the cushion to 73-53.
Breana Pineda came down with an injury with just four minutes left in the third quarter after colliding with Adamson’s Brianna Bajo.
It was the same script for the España-based squad in the fourth, holding Adamson to 13 points in the quarter. Tigress Erinn McAlaray iced the game with back-to-back triples.
Etang led the Falcons with 23 points on 9-of-18 shooting while Apag scored 16 points in the loss.
The Tigrresses will gun for their 10th straight victory when they face the UP Fighting Maroons on Wednesday, Nov. 5, in the same venue. F
