UE unveils gem in Wilson
UNIVERSITY of the East has unveiled a gem in Gjerard Wilson.
When the chips were down, the Red Warriors turned to Wilson, who scored nine points in the fourth quarter, outscoring the entire Far Eastern University by one, in Saturday night’s 65-58 win over the Tamaraws in the UAAP men’s basketball tournament at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The victory pushed UE in a four-way tie in second place with La Salle, National University and Adamson at 2-1.
A product of NCAA Division II school LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis where he played for three seasons, the 6-foot-1 Wilson deflected the credit to the entire squad, which unloaded a telling 22-0 run to erase a 36-50 deficit and take full control.
“It wasn’t just me. It was the whole team. We didn’t give up. Coach Jack (Santiago) and the whole staff we work hard every day at practice so we’re built for times like this. We stayed as a unit and we stepped to the system,” said Wilson, who eventually finished with 15 points, three rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes of action.
Nigerian center Precious Momowei also had 15 points, including the much-needed separation baskets for the Red Warriors to preserve the win, to go along with game-highs 17 rebounds and three steals.
“I would say the team followed the instructions… We held down FEU especially in the fourth, we scored 25 points to eight points of FEU. I’ll give this game to our second group because I think they did their job. We scored 30 bench points,” said Santiago.
Up next for UE is struggling Ateneo, which started its title-retention campaign by losing two of the first three games on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Tamaraws remained winless under new coach Denok Miranda. FEU, which opened its season last year with five consecutive defeats, joined University of Santo Tomas at the bottom of the standings at 0-3.
The scores:
Fourth game
UE (65) – Wilson 15, Momowei 15, Remogat 8, Tulabut 7, Sawat 6, Cruz-Dumont 6, Lingolingo 5, Galang 3, Fikes 0, Alcantara 0, Langit 0.
FEU (58) – Gonzales 16, Faty 12, Bautista 11, Añonuevo 6, Torres 5, Tempra 4, Alforque 2, Sleat 2, Bagunu 0, Ona 0, Competente 0, Montemayor 0, Felipe 0.
Quarterscores: 16-20, 29-39, 40-50, 65-58.
