Heart of a warrior

Sticking together despite a forgettable start to Season 87 of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament, University of the East took down a squad touted in the preseason to make good strides, all thanks to a resilient guard who didn’t let a bad start to the night dampen his confidence.

Ethan Galang was a horrid 1-for-8 from the field heading into the final 76 ticks before making the Red Warriors last eight points to key a 56-51 win over Far Eastern at Smart Araneta Coliseum as UE notched a first win and made the Tamaraws slump to a third straight defeat after another late-game meltdown.

“I knew I was off pretty much the whole game,” Galang said. “But in that last minute, it’s just keep shooting, keep my head up, whatever happened in the past can stay in the past, just keep shooting.”

It was an ego-boosting win for the Warriors, whose first two defeats came in lopsided styles. And coach Jack Santiago had thought of the slide as something that could have resulted in more losses.

“I’m glad that the boys responded well. It’s hard playing with a 0-2 record,” Santiago said. “We just told the boys to just stick together. Whatever happened, we needed to follow the game plan.

“And I am happy that even though we were down, they stuck to it,” Santiago said.

Another injury

Now that the Warriors have gotten off the hump, it seems that the Tamaraws have yet to get past their own.

Coming off a massive fourth quarter collapse against National University, the Tamaraws went dead silent for a six-minute stretch in the third quarter after taking a 43-42 lead.

That went on until the first four minutes of the fourth, and the Warriors simply had more to give in a see-saw endgame that had the Filipino-American Galang shooting the first of his two triples at the final 1:16 mark that knotted things up at 51.

Galang drained another in the next UE play, before putting the game to bed with two free throws that capped a 10-point night.

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Gjerard Wilson, Wello Lingolingo, and Rainier Maga were the ones who rallied the Warriors from that 10-point hole as a 13-0 run gave UE the lead.

Wilson went on to finish with 10 points, all coming in the second half, while Maga chipped in with nine.

Nigerian center Precious Momowei helped with seven points and 12 rebounds.

The next task for UE will be a big one, as the Warriors battle powerhouse defending champion La Salle on Sunday at Mall of Asia Arena at 6:30 p.m.

The Tamaraws, who enlisted the help of PBA import great Sean Chambers as coach, will be facing University of the Philippines also Sunday, with athletic wingman Cholo Anonuevo still listed as day-to-day because of a hamstring injury.