DEFENDING champion Dagupan City, represented by the University of Luzon Golden Tigers, maintained its supremacy in Region 1 Private Schools Athletic Association’s (PRISAA) cagefest by defeating arch-rivals Laoag City and La Union to retain its crown for the second consecutive time.

The much-improved Dagupan City quintet easily won a lopsided match against Laoag City in the morning, 103-36, and finally ousted La Union in the afternoon, 86-73, to earn the berth representing Region 1 in the PRISAA National Games scheduled April 19-25 next year in Naga City.

The championship games were held at the Saint Louie College gym last November 30 at San Fernando City, La Union.

As expected, the scoring of the Dagupeno dribblers of Councilor Chito Samson was dominated by its key players Marbin Macalalad, Norman Ilao, Gian Cruz, Allan Roquin, Christopher Sagun and Willy Caina, who did the damage most against the Ilocanos, especially their tautly-fought contest against the La Union squad.

With point guard Macalalad pumping inside the border lane and from beyond the arc and Ilao playing the post, each scored a team high 13 points. Cruz buried 11 while Caina nailed10. Roquin and Sagun contributed eight points each.

“After leading by 19 points, 64-45, at the end of the third quarter, the match turned into a rugged play and I told my boys just to play cool to avoid any scuffle knowing that they’re the host,” said head coach Renato “Jack” Vidal.

“We knew in the beginning that we could beat them and our core goal is the national games so we played our natural defensive play to secure our victory and to avoid any untoward incident and injury,” he added.—JAG, Jr.