By NIKOLE JAVIER
De La Salle fended off University of Santo Tomas’ late comeback to eke out a 74-69 win and clinch the championship berth in the UAAP Season 85 women’s basketball Final Four on Sunday, Dec 4, at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Bettina Binaohan delivered a double-double performance of 17 points on top of 10 rebounds including the two free throws that untangled La Salle from a 69-all deadlock with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter.
Fina Niantcho Tchuido also chipped in a double-double outing of 18 points apart from 12 boards to tow the Lady Archers to the finals for the first time since Season 79.
The Lady Archers had to remain composed down the stretch to pull off the victory after letting go of a nine-point advantage and eventually redeem themselves in the endgame.
With 16.7 seconds to go in the contest, UST had a couple of opportunities to even the game with Joylyn Pangilinan who missed her shot from beyond the arc.
Brigette Santos and Eka Soriano then came through with huge rebounds to keep the possession on the UST side but shot clock expired on Tacky Tacatac before she could do anything from the outside.
Soriano was then sent to the line but the pressure evidently got the best of her and missed both freebies for the Tigresses.
In the final seconds, Lee Sario also couldn’t earn her two points off the line to extend La Salle’s lead by five before Charmaine Torres got her turn and drilled both of her free throws to ice the game.
"I'd like to give credit to UST they played one hell of a series against us but we were the better team this time around. We made the proper adjustments on what they are doing on their previous games," said La Salle head coach Cholo Villanueva.
"It was about being composed and being relaxed. There's a big difference between the two. We were in the borderline of being relaxed that first game. The girls just wanted it this more this game and just needed to be aggressive against the UST side," he added.
Agatha Bron paced UST with 13 points whole Soriano contributed 10 in the losing effort.
La Salle will face six-time National University on Wednesday, Dec. 7 for a best-of-three finals series.
The scores:
DLSU (74) -- Niantcho 18, Binaohan 17, Torres 16, Sario 12, Jimenez 5, Dalisay 3, Arciga 2, De La Paz 1, Camba 0, Ahmed 0, Espinas 0.
UST (69) -- Bron 13, Soriano 10, Dionisio 9, Villasin 8, Tacatac 8, Pangilinan 8, Ambos 8, Serrano 3, Santos 2.
Quarterscores: 21-18, 38-34, 57-50, 74-69