University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigresses continued its dominant start to the UAAP Season 89 women’s basketball tournament, overwhelming Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws, 88-42, on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The defending champions raised their record to 4-0 to maintain their grip on the top spot, extending their average winning margin to 33.25 points after another convincing performance.
UST head coach Haydee Ong credited the team’s defensive execution for keeping the Lady Tamaraws to just 42 points, particularly against key scorers Amyah Espanol and Victoria Pasilang.
“‘Yung gameplan is to stop sina Amyah [Espanol], sina [Victoria] Pasilang, and I think ‘yung individual defense and the team defense tells a lot kasi they scored 42 points lang,” Ong said.
The Growling Tigresses established control early, opening the contest with a 25-10 advantage in the first quarter behind the inside scoring of Nigerian center Oma Onianwa.
UST tightened its defensive grip in the second period, keeping FEU without a point for nearly five minutes as the lead ballooned to 23 points following a layup by Karylle Sierba.
The Tigresses carried a commanding 43-22 cushion into halftime before continuing to pull away after the break. They capped their performance with a 31-9 fourth-quarter explosion to seal the 46-point victory.
Onianwa paced UST with 20 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks, while Sierba added 18 points, seven boards and three assists. CJ Maglupay also turned in her best outing of the season, contributing 12 points, seven rebounds and three steals.
FEU struggled to generate offense throughout the game, with no player reaching double figures. Espanol led the Lady Tamaraws with nine points, while Pasilang went scoreless after missing all nine of her field-goal attempts in 23 minutes. They dropped to a 2-2 mark. (Adrian Co)
