University of Visayas downs UST

Friday, January 27, 2012

UNIVERSITY OF Visayas (UV) leaned on the heroics of Paul Desiderio to upend University of Sto. Tomas’s (UST) campaign in the SBP National Under-16 Basketball Championship at the University of Baguio gym Friday afternoon.

UV outsmarted the baby Growling Tigers in their semis match, 93-87, to earn the first finals seat in the national championship which saw 12 teams from all over the country squaring off in the weeklong tournament.

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Desiderio led all scorers with a game high of 38 points after making it to the crossover semis by knocking out St. Clare College in the last game of the eliminations Thursday afternoon at the CCDC gymnasium in La Trinidad, Benguet.

UST easily made it to the crossover semi-finals by crushing hapless St. Bridget College, 80-32, Thursday at the Easter College gym.

Stung by their 88-78 defeat to Group “B” qualifier and undefeated Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori last Wednesday, the UST Baby Tigers vented their ire on the Batangueños to clinch the walk-in-the-park win.

The baby Growling Tigers, after trailing by as much as 11 in the final canto, never led in the entire ball game came close to within three with less than three minutes remaining, 85-82.

But luck was not on the side of the NCR representative by having three turnovers in their succeeding plays which the Cebuanos took advantage of in the event presented by Summit Mineral Water and supported by Energen Nutrition Milk and Cereal, Philex Mining, Molten and the MVP Sports Foundation.

“‘Yung puso ng mga bata ang nagpanalo sa amin, tsaka gusto nilang manalo para madsulit naman yung sobrang layo ng byahe naming,” said UV head coach Jaymar Canoy.

From that three-point lead, UV scored eight more baskets down the stretch to seal the victory as RJ Dinolan and Leonard Santillan chipped in 15 and 10 points each for the Visayan squad.

As of this writing, Sacred Heart of Jesus was squaring off against St. John Institute in the other cross-over semis match.

UV will await for the winner and will dispute the title in a winner-take-all match with the champion bringing home a handcrafted trophy plus P30,000 donated by SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan.