Thursday, August 09, 2007 ‘Other rookie’ delivers By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
AS THE Slaughter mania started to calm down, the other rookies of University of the Visayas Green Lancers are starting to get noticed as the Lancers annihilated the hapless Cebu Institute of Technology Wildcats, 99-61 , in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. yesterday.
However, the match was capped by a “boxing match” in the final minutes.
Although the Filipino-American giant Gregory Slaughter made a complete turnaround from his debut last weekend, the spotlight shifted to rookie forward Michael Luga, whose endgame savvy caught the attention of many.
Slaughter, scored only four points last game but registered 11 points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes yesterday.
Luga, on the other hand, overshadowed the 24 points he scored in the entire game against University of Cebu last weekend, as he scored 19 points in the last 23 minutes of the game.
Luga needed only the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to tally his numbers and to work his magic.
In the game, the Wildcats started off with an early 12-0 blitz, before the Lancers erased this behind Slaughter and lefty point guard Harlow Chad Villanil, who rained five triples in the second period as UV completely took over the game.
In the third period, CIT, down by 21 at 41-62, had a moment of recovery towards the end of the third period with an 8-0 run, cutting the lead to 49-64 behind workhorses Sherwin Abobo, Emilio Aniñon and Sherwin Villarba.
It was only hampered in the fourth, when it became an all-Luga show.
Unstoppable
Luga was unstoppable, scoring 16 in UV’s 18-0 run that shut the door on CIT.
UV was ahead 92-59 with just a little over a minute left when, out of frustration, punches flew, fists went up and players were ejected.
CIT’s Ryan Montealto was thrown out after retaliating on UV’s Chris Diputado. Diputado accidentally struck Montealto in the face when he attempted to block Montealto’s layup, sending the latter to the free throw line.
In the ensuing play Montealto got his revenge and hit Diputado in the face. Both were then booted out.
Later, CIT’s Dexter Capaning and UV’s Ritchum Dennison were slapped with technicals after almost figuring in another fistfight.
