Tuesday, July 08, 2008
China nails second win
By Marian C. Baring
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CHINA’S Liu Bin, the head of delegation of the Chinese team that is competing in the 6th Asian Universities Basketball Championships, announced that their participation in the league is mainly geared towards the fostering of friendship with teams from neighboring countries.
However, on court, the Chinese team of Huaqiao University meant business as there was nothing friendly with their annihilation of University of Luzon Golden Tigers, 104-94, the other night at the Cebu Coliseum.
Huaqiao struggled at first as they could not seem to put up a good lead against a resilient Tigers, but with the backing of Cebuano fans, the Chinese gained a lot of confidence to take the momentum in their favor at crunch time.
Huaquiao University’s bid was spearheaded by wingman Zhang Jiabin, who scorched the basket with 26 points. Yun Xiang, Chen Rongren and Ye Chaoyong combined for 43 points for China.
Guganeswaran Batumalai and Chee Li Wei were the other double digit scorers for the team.
Huaqiao is now on top of the ranking with a 2-0 win-loss record sharing it with Cebu’s University of the Visayas. The two teams are battling for solo leadership as they were squaring off against each other in Bogo City at press time last night.
Another foreign team, the Koreans, is also hanging on as they shamed Southwestern University (SWU), 81-72, in Bogo City, to bounce back from its opening day loss to UV in their first match.
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However, SWU, the champions of the National Schools Basketball Championships, managed to make a comeback from that loss venting their ire on Angeles University Foundation in a convincing 79-59 fashion yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.
Angeles started out strong not allowing the Cebuanos to make a clear getaway for the win, even closing the first half at 33-all.
However, in the third period, the Cobras bared their fangs and went on a 21-point scoring binge behind Janno Nuñez, Eric Zanoria and Ritchie Jalandoni, while holding off their opponents limiting them to scoring just 11 points.
AUF never recovered from this.
In the final period, Jalandoni stepped up even further and scored 10 points of his 13 points, seconded by Nuñez, who initiated an 11-3 run that hit the final nail on AUF’s coffin. Nuñez topscored for the team with 20 points.
SWU is currently at third place with two wins against one loss.
Nunez, a bulky forward from Davao with a soft touch from the perimeter, finished with a game-high of 20 points.
SWU (79)—Nunez 20, Jalandoni 13, Poligrates 9, Zanoria 9, Belande 9, Armecin 8, Ceniza 4, Django 3, Litorja 2, Pacquiao 2. AUF (59)—Gomez 11, Torres 10, Dumlao 10, Manarang 8, Mallari 5, Musni 5, Santos 5, Gigante 3, Carney 2.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 8, 2008 issue)
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