University of Luzon Tigers is 3-peat champions
THE University of Luzon (UL) Golden Tigers survived its toughest match yet in all their championship games by finding a new hero in Marvin Macalalad who canned the winning basket in the last 5.5 seconds, a nail-biting end score of 66-65 against the Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) Dukes.
The Tigers’ victory gives them their third consecutive crown in the annual PRISAA Pangasinan-Dagupan Inter-Collegiate Basketball Championship.
The Tigers, struggling early in the game by as many as 10 points, 30-20, halfway in the second period, played brilliantly after their timeout and successfully contrived an 11-2 spree to trail by just a single point, 32-31, at the end of the first half.
The Tigers, who narrowly defeated the Dukes, 85-82, during their first encounter in the finals, fought an oscillating battle in the third quarter with center Norman Ilao, forward Willy Caina and point guard Macalalad countering every basket of the Dukes’ key players Michael Indoy, Lionel Razon and Benjie Labitoria.
In the last 2:21 minutes of the match, the Tigers were leading by three points, 60-57, but found themselves in a snag and trailed by one point, 64-65, with 27 ticks left.
A costly pass was then made by the Dukes, allowing the Tigers to telegraph and seize the ball at the Middle West side of the court. Given control of the ball, Macalalad pumped in a Hail Mary 12-footer shot that went in ringless form to seal the championship match and bringing the crowd into boisterous mode.
“I respect the Dukes team and we are just lucky we got the breaks in the end game,” said the Tigers’ head coach Renato ‘Jack’ Vidal.
“Our victory boosted the morale of our boys and we are ready for the Battle of the Champions event on October 9 and 10 and hopefully we’ll win again,” added the happy Vidal.
“We were really aghast with the referees’ calls and that cost us our defeat,” fumed Dukes assistant coach Juan Castro.
“But anyway I believe we will make it next year,” he added.
As of press time, the UL boys of Dagupan City alderman Chito Samson are battling the visiting Lyceum Subic Bay who mauled and eliminated LNU, 109-64, during last Thursday’s opening match in the Battle of the Champions.— JAG, Jr.
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