GILAS Pilipinas player Mason Amos and Russel Ogana combined for four triples in the payoff period and La Salle repeated over UCAL champion Centro Escolar University, 58-55, to inch closer to earning the No. 1 seed in the playoffs of the PGFlex Invitational Basketball Tournament on Monday at the Paco Arena in Manila.
Just a day after coming off the bench in Gilas Pilipinas’ 93-54 demolition of Hong Kong in their FIBA Asia Cup 2025 qualifier on Sunday, Amos opened the fourth quarter with a trey to put La Salle on top, 43-42, before Ogana staged a one-man show to complete the team’s comeback win.
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Amos finished with 15 points to go with 7 rebounds and 1 assist in almost 27 minutes of play as the Taft-based squad improved to 6-1 in the pre-season tournament also presented by Quintana.
CEU, which absorbed a 73-63 loss to La Salle in the first phase of elims, finished third with a 4-4 record.
By the day simply belonged to Ogana who scored 11 of his 17 points in the fourth frame. His last basket – a floating jumper – gave the Archers a 58-53 lead with barely 58 ticks to go.
The Archers continued to miss crafty guard Kean Baclaan but Jacob Cortez filled the slack as he masterfully quarterbacked the team’s offense that saw him produce 13 points and 7 assists.
In other games, Immaculada Concepcion College and Olivarez College boosted their bids for the fourth and last semis berth by beating their respective rivals to hike their records to 4-4 and 3-5, respectively.
Drawing 23 points from Edrian Mark Ramirez, ICC outlasted the MCU Supremos, 85-80, while the Olivarez Sea Lions used a well-balanced attack anchored on Gianluca Spinosa (15 points and 9 rebounds), Cristian Vergara (13 points and 5 rebounds) and Monsour Proel (12 points) in eking out a 67-62 win over the also-ran Falcons.
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