Sports Eye
Championship games recap
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
IT WAS July 24 when the 2009 PRISAA-UCAAP Inter-Collegiate Basketball Championship was officially opened at the Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) gym. I was there and watched the successful staging witnessed by participating colleges’ students. I was not able to cover the qualifying matches, quarterfinals, semis but caught all the action of the best-of-three final series between LNU and the visiting Panpacific University of North Philippines (PUNP) of Urdaneta City. Allow me to recapitulate the action in each of the three games that ended on September 24.
GAME 1, Sept. 14
The Dukes took the first two periods, 31-25 and 53-46, with prolific forward player Michael Indoy and point-guard Benjie Labitoria doing the damage against the visitors combining 26 points. But the visitors from Urdaneta accelerated on the third canto, spearheaded by their two reliable power-forwards Dionisio Cuaresma and Rey Gonzales coalescing 21 points and mostly done in the perimeters to grab the lead by just two points, 80-78. Then the fourth and final quarter was a seesaw battle with both teams using up all their timeouts to set up different strategies. But the wily court general, the veteran Labitoria despite obviously feeling overwrought and tired, scored 10 clutch baskets in the last two-and-half minutes to lift his team to a nail-biting victory, 107-105. After the game, a woman from the PUNP group made a profanity-laced, finger pointing lambaste against two of the three referees due to poor officiating.
GAME 2, Sept. 22
Before the start of the game, prominent names connected in the league were mentioned including the vice president of PUNP, Michael dela Cruz. BAP Region 1 referees’ commissioner Manny Gatchalian, acting as emcee, erroneously announced Atty. Gonzalo Duque as the national president of PRISAA. (Duque is the national chairman, not the national president). He acknowledged also the presence of Seato Gonimil as PRISAA region 1 treasurer but forgot to mention the name of Phil Celi, PRISAA’s region 1 executive director.
Awardees were all cited and accorded honors for their exemplary efforts during the two-month tourney. The coveted ‘MVP’ award was bagged by Benjie Labitoria while the ‘Most Improved Player’ citation was given to Llyod Quisay, both from LNU. Francis Abaya of PUNP received the ‘Best in Assist’ honor while teammate Rey Gonzales was cited as ‘Rookie of the Year.’ Mythical Five was composed of Cuaresma, Labitoria, Indoy, Willie Caina and Norman Ilao of the University of Luzon Golden Tigers.
The hunters, the PUNP squad, started fast and furious and very determined to win the second game to stay in contention for the title. The boys of Baguio-City born coach Edward Taguiba took the first two quarters, 26-18, 53-46, but found themselves badly threatened on the third when the ‘never-say-die’ Dukes orchestrated a 19-10 romp to seize the lead by two points, 69-67, 1:40 minutes left. Knowing that they were on the verge of defeat, Taguiba called a time out, set a ploy and luckily his boys recaptured the lead, 72-69, and never looked back up to the end of the final quarter to win by ten points, 103-93.
GAME 3, Sept. 24
Both teams were noticeably tense and held long warm-ups inside the court. It was Labitoria who scored the first two points but Gonzales immediately countered this. The boys of Gonz soon got the upper hand during the first period to lead by six points, 24-18, with Labitoria, Indoy and Lionel Manalo answering the baskets of PUNP.
The second quarter belonged to the Urdaneta boys with Gonzales, Cuaresma and Julius Eleazar raining shots to lead their team by nine points, 53-44.
But surprisingly, the Urdanetanians were not able to hold their tempo at the start of the third period, committing numerous turnovers, misfiring and were outrun. The A-1 conditioned Dukes engineered an unbelievable and spectacular 32-2 salvo in the first six minutes that stunned their opponents with a 20-point lead, 75-55. The best that the PUNP boys could do was to creep, draft and lessen the gap at the end of the third, 81-70. From there on, the visitors never threatened to wrest the lead until the final bell sounded with a final score of 115-107.
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