UAAP: UP vs UST preview and live-scoring (round 2)

Game starts at 2pm. Page auto-refreshes every 30 seconds. First round meeting: The University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers played three bad quarters but still managed to put away the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons late, 68-58, last August 15, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The Growling Tigers played the game minus the services of Jeric Teng, and as a result, their offense looked disjointed for long stretches. The Fighting Maroons capitalized, tying the game at the break, 33-all. State U led for much of the third period, the last time coming on two charities by swingman Mark Lopez, which made it 43-42 with 3:07 left, but UST finally found their groove, closing out the quarter on an 8-2 run. Off a steal, Clark Bautista made the score to put the Tigers up by five, with 10 minutes left to play, 50-45. A put-back by Lopez followed by a split at the line by Chris Ball got UP within a point, 55-54, with 4:46 left. Unfazed, UST buckled down on defense and held their foes to just two more points for the rest of the game. Key stats: Despite the absence of Jeric Teng due to injury, four Growling Tiges still managed to score 10 or more points led by a 20-point, 12 performance by UST center Karim Abdul. Hustle-man Kim Lo in particular turned in an inspired performance: 11 points on 50 percent shooting, eight rebounds and three steals. Having Abdul allowed UST to dominate the glass, to the tune of 47 to 38 rebounds, but interestingly enough, UP was only -2 in the offensive rebound category, and managed to out-score their foes 15-10 in second-chance points. Another category that went UST's way, thanks to Abdul, was free throws. UP connected at a higher rate, 90 percent versus 75 percent, but the Growling Tigers got and made more looks, 18-of-24 versus 9-of-10. UP's offense also slowed down come the second half. After scoring 33 points in the first 20 minutes, they were held to only 12 points in the third period and 13 in the fourth, while UST didn't let up, scoring 35 markers in the second half.   UP needs to: Neutralize the presence of Karim Abdul down low and force UST to become a perimeter-oriented team. Players like Alinko Mbah and Raul Soyud need to be able to contain Abdul one-on-one so that their guys on the perimeter don't have to commit to a double-team, leaving the Growling Tiger shooters open. UST needs to: Minimize turnovers so that UP can't get out and run easily. They'll also need to rule another hustle statistic: second-chance points, especially after they were beaten in that stat despite out-rebounding the Maroons in their first-round meeting. UP (1-10, 8th place) projected starting five: Mike Silungan (14 points, 6/13 FG, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 2 steals vs DLSU), Mark Lopez, Henry Asilum, Raul Soyud, Chris Ball UST (8-3, 2nd place) projected starting five: Jeric Teng (22 points, 6/15 FG, 3/4 FT, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal vs ADU), Karim Abdul, Aljon Mariano, Jeric Fortuna, Melo Afuang - AMD, GMA News