Saturday, July 12, 2008 UV faces China in finals By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
HUAQIAO University of China and Han Yang University of South Korea figured in an impassioned tooth and nail battle not only for the first championship berth of the 6th Asian Universities Basketball Championships but for national pride in the Asian University Basketball Champions.
In the end, the Chinese squad prevailed over the courageous Koreans, 70-65, to wound up on top of the ranking and to fight for the title against the University of the Visayas today.
Adding pressure to both squads was how their countrymen trooped to the Coliseum, waving their respective national flags to show their support to their basketball squads.
The Koreans put up a good start behind the leadership of Lee Dong Geon in the firs few minutes and Kim Woo Kyum, who scored eight straight points in the final two minutes of the first period for their five-point lead going into the second period.
However, getting behind seemed to fire up the Chinese all the more.
A very emotional Chen Rongren cried to his teammates to wake up and opened the second period with a slam dunk that sent the Chinese fans on their feet.
The second period started a tight race but eventually, the Chinese managed to wrest the lead from Korea behind a buzzer beating triple from Wang Jiayi, 27-26 going into the third period.
In the penultimate period, the Chinese put all their trust on Zhang Jiabin, who wrecked havoc in the final four minutes of the third quarter that enabled China to take the lead for good.
Zhang’s third period exploits was capped by 11 straight points— including three straight triples—that allowed China to get out of the 34-all deadlock and put China up ahead.
Damage control
China posted a seven-point lead in less than four minutes but Korea’s Cha Ba Wee quickly did some damage control and kept the team on track as he scored seven points to end the quarter behind by three, 43-46.
The match got heated in the final period as both teams started playing rough and just three minutes into the fourth period, two players from both sides were called for technical fouls after getting into a heated exchange.
Meanwhile, the UV Green Lancers took a longer route to the final round as they needed to overcome the frentic attacks of the gritty SWU Cobras, 89-69, in a do-or-die matchup.
The Lancers banked on a strong perimeter shooting in the 3rd quarter with Ritchum Dennison anchoring the three-point splurge.
