MANILA, Philippines — Reigning champion La Salle moved a win away from a profitable title retention bid by drubbing residence guess Japan College Choose Group, 88-75, within the 2025 World College Basketball Sequence Last 4 Sunday on the Yoyogi Nationwide Fitness center in Tokyo.
The Inexperienced Archers unleashed a searing 22-7 run within the second quarter to grab management and by no means look behind to advance of their second straight WUBS finals look.
La Salle’s game-changing rally turned an in depth 19-17 first-quarter result in a commanding 41-24 hole on the half as not even a stronger second-half displaying from the Japanese squad proved sufficient.
A runner-up behind College of the Philippines within the UAAP final season, La Salle slugs it out towards both Korea College or one other Japanese crew in Nippon Sport Science College for the WUBS title Monday.
The wards of coach Topex Robinson dominated final 12 months’s Asian tourney over Korea College 101-86, with Gilas Pilipinas ace Kevin Quiambao main the best way.
Quiambao left the Inexperienced Archers after the UAAP Season 87 final 12 months and is now enjoying for the Goyang Sono Skygunners within the Korean Basketball League however La Salle proved as the identical beast behind Mike Phillips.
It was Phillips who additionally led the Inexperienced Archers to an in depth 89-84 win over Nationwide Chengchi College of Chinese language Taipei, 89-84, within the knockout quarterfinals however acquired ample help from Mason Amos, Kean Baclaan, Jacob Cortez, Luis Pablo, Earl Abadam and Vhoris Marasigan.
Defending UAAP titlist UP, for its half, acquired eradicated early with a 75-71 loss to Korea College in Spherical 1.
UP, coming off a three-peat feat within the PlayTime Cares Filoil EcoOil 18th Preseason Cup and a sweep of Tacloban’s Marty Cup 2025 Battle of Champions, additionally missed out a comfort fifth-place end by bowing Australia’s College of Sydney, 96-77.
The WUBS, additionally that includes Hong Kong College, is an annual collegiate tourney in Asia that includes eight champion squads of their respective nations in a knockout format.
