Adamson leaned on its balanced attack to recover from a sluggish start and stun University of Santo Tomas, 69-56, for its second win in the first round of the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament on Sunday, Sept. 15, at the Mall of Asia Arena. 

The Soaring Falcons got the Growling Tigers off their backs completely in the second half to bounce back from their lopsided loss to defending champion La Salle Green Archers on Wednesday  and improved their record to 2-1. 

Monty Montebon led the way for Adamson with a team-high 15-point performance, while AJ Fransman turned in a double-double outing with 11 markers on top of 10 rebounds after a strong showing in the first half. 

Royce Mantua, for his part, added 11 points highlighted by a perfect inside shooting. 

Adamson was barely holding on to a 33-32 lead over UST at the break when Nic Cabanero greeted the third period with five straight points which briefly gave the Growling Tigers their last advantage in the match. 

Veteran Falcon Joshua Yerro was back on his senses right away the moment he saw the gap widening as he drilled a game-tying floater to lock the game at 37-all, still with plenty of time in the third. 

The Soaring Falcons went on to seize control of that whole quarter with a 19-6 blitz, with Royce Mantua firing a three-pointer in the early goings of the fourth period to give their side a fresh 17-point advantage. 

It didn’t take long for Adamson to stretch the lead even further, bringing the game to its biggest lead, 67-47, after Yerro’s huge and-1 play off John Arthur’s Calisay’s missed triple. 

“I’m so happy with the win. Just looking at the stats, it just means that they put in the effort today and made their adjustments,  and played a lot better today,” said Adamson head coach Nash Racela.

From then on, there was nothing UST could've done to turn around the second-half collapse as it ran out of time, leaving Adamson with a convincing second win of the season. 

Nic Cabanero, who was just getting accustomed to sharing the offensive load with the rejigged UST rotation, was the lone pacer for the Growling Tigers with 16 points that went with five rebounds.

The Growling Tigers fell to a similar 2-1 slate following strong showing in the first week of action.