University of Santo Tomas clinched a playoff for a Final Four slot in the UAAP Season 85 Women’s Basketball Tournament after staving off a determined Adamson University, 73-66, Sunday at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.
The Growling Tigresses notched their eighth win of the season against two losses to move on verge of a top-four slot while dropping the Lady Falcons to a 3-7 slate.
But UST needed to fend off Adamson to take this one.
Despite being down by as much as 54-37 courtesy of a Joylyn Pangilinan three at the 4:01 mark of the third period, Adamson came back strong in the fourth quarter.
The Lady Falcons were able to trim the deficit to just 63-68 off a Cris Padilla basket with 2:05 remaining in the contest.
Pangilinan and Eka Soriano though had other plans, restoring order with big baskets to stretch the lead to 73-63 at the 1:28 mark of the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
“Of course, a win is a win but I told the girls after the one-week break, uphill games talaga – Ateneo and NU,” said Growling Tigresses coach Haydee Ong.
“We have to work on our turnovers. We had 34 today. We’ll keep working hard for the next few games,” the former national team head coach continued.
Pangilinan led UST with 17 points behind five-out-of-11 shooting from the three-point line followed by Soriano’s 13 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and six steals.
Agatha Bron had 11 points and six rebounds for the Growling Tigresses.
UST relied on its bench mob to win the game as they produced 37 points to Adamson’s 20. The Growling Tigresses also had 27 points off turnovers against the Lady Falcons’ 15.