La Salle sweeps Ateneo to win Season 79 crown

The De La Salle Green Archers capped a dominant campaign with a 79-72 victory over the Ateneo Blue Eagles to win the UAAP Season 79 men's basketball championship on Wednesday at SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

La Salle capped a 2-0 sweep in the title round after defeating the Blue Eagles in Game One last Saturday. Aldin Ayo's squad lost only one game all season long, falling in an upset to Ateneo in the second round of the eliminations.

Longtime Green Archers star Jeron Teng, in his final playing year for the university, tied his season-high with 28 points to win Most Valuable Player honors in the finals.

"I'm giving this back to La Salle for everything La Salle has done for me," said Teng, who scored 19 points in the first half to spark the Green Archers' scoring blitz.

Cameroonian center Ben Mbala, who was named MVP of the tournament prior to the game, once again came up with a double-double for La Salle finishing with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Green Archers also enjoyed the productivity of its wings, with Kib Montalbo, Aljun Melecio, and Andrei Caracut combining for 21.

The Green Archers are bringing their ninth UAAP title back to Taft Avenue, their first since 2013.

The Eagles played catch up for most of the game, struggling to chip away at the lead before Raffy Verano connected on a corner triple to trim the deficit to just 77-72 heading into the final minute.

Isaac Go then gave up a late foul against Teng, and the graduating King Archer secured two to stretch the lead to six with 43 ticks left. A late split from Thomas Torres settled the final score.

In the final four, the Green Archers defeated the Adamson Falcons, before waiting for the winner between Atene and Far Eastern University in the other bracket. Ateneo needed two games to defeat the Tams, before taking on the Archers in the best of three series.

Mike Nieto paced Ateneo with 18 points off a 3 of 10 clip. Nieto scored 10 points from the charity stripe. Adrian Wong and Raffy Verano had 10 points each, while Thirdy Ravena had only three points off a 0 of 10 clip. Aaron Black, who was a big spark plug for Ateneo in Game One, had just two points. —JST, GMA News