University of the East finally moved into the winning column after prevailing over Far Eastern University, 56-51, in their thrilling match in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.

For head coach Jack Santiago, the key to their victory is “sticking together.”

The Red Warriors clinched their first triumph after two early losses as they outshone the Tamaraws, who remained winless in the league in three games.

And with UE’s effort and resiliency evident in crunch time, Santiago was just thankful as his wards paid full trust to each other.

“Well, I'm glad that the boys responded very well. It's so hard to play with a 0-2 record, but I just gave some instructions to the boys that we should stick together,” said Santiago Wednesday evening, Sept. 18.

“Whatever happens inside the court, we will stick to the game plan and I'm so happy that even though we're down, we're still there in our game plan,” he added.

The Recto-based squad successfully turned things around as it came back from a 51-47 deficit courtesy of a 9-0 attack in the final stretch. Ethan Galang starred in that sequence after hitting two consecutive triples and a couple of free throws.

“I know I was off pretty much the whole game, but in that last minute, it was just keep shooting, keep my head up,” said Galang. “Whatever happened in the past can stay in the past.”

But before Galang’s heroics for the Red Warriors, returnee Gjerard Wilson initiated the run before gradually climbing back and eventually took the win.

“I mean, I think it's just the hard work that I put in, especially in the offseason when I got hurt,” said Wilson.