The Warriors will hunt a key victory without Precious Momowei to put the team on his back. —UAAP MEDIA

De La Salle University (DLSU) is playing to near perfection in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.

It is the same kind of perfection University of the East (UE) needs as it looks to solidify its hold of third place, especially after the league denied its appeal on the one-game suspension of center Precious Momowei.

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“It’s nothing new to us,” UE coach Jack Santiago said of his team’s looming match against Ateneo on Wednesday at University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) Quadricentennial Pavilion 6:30 p.m.

“Remember last season, we played Ateneo without a FSA (foreign student-athlete) also. The good thing is we saw last Saturday the other players stepping up,” Santiago added. “I hope by next game, they can still do the same.”

Momowei was thrown out in a loss to UST last Saturday after he committed two unsportsmanlike fouls that left Tigers standouts Mo Tounkara and Gelo Crisostomo bloodied on the floor. Both incidents, however, looked inadvertent and Momowei even proceeded to the UST dugout after the game to apologize.

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Automatic suspension

Santiago, Momowei and the Warriors vehemently protested the second unsportsmanlike foul, which came after Crisostomo challenged Momowei’s drive and got hit in the face by the Nigerian’s elbow on the way down.

Momowei was ejected after that call, drawing an automatic suspension that also disqualified him from individual awards.

Santiago and the Warriors (6-6, win-loss) need badly to win against the Eagles to strengthen its hold on third place, which is tenuous at best as the Tigers (6-7) are just half a game behind and own a season sweep of UE.

But the coach out of the La Salle program is confident his players can hold the fort without Momowei, who averages team-highs of close to 13 points and 14 rebounds per game. Momowei also averages nearly four offensive rebounds per game, which will be vital to a squad that already brings up the rear in second chance points with a shade over seven an outing.

But Santiago is optimistic his team can find ways to make up those numbers.

“Remember, even when Precious wasn’t thrown out yet, we went all-Filipino. So at least, we saw the team could recover [without him]. That’s the one thought we need to embrace,” he said.

Securing third place means a showdown against University of the Philippines in the Final Four. The Maroons own the No. 2 spot with a 9-3 record. A loss will send UE into a battle against top seed La Salle, which is gunning for a bigger goal this season.

And it’s not what one might simply think.

“For us, the challenge is always to honor the teams that represented DLSU throughout the years,” coach Topex Robinson said. “We want to be a part of the conversation of one of the greatest teams that DLSU has ever produced.”

UE, however, owns La Salle’s lone defeat this season and that could play into the Final Four positioning.

The Archers, who hold a 12-1 card, have one last assignment in eliminated National University at 2 p.m., right before the UE-Ateneo encounter.