Monday, July 14, 2008 China whips Cebu’s best By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Chinese squad from Huaqiao University quashed the impression that the University of the Visayas is the better team and proved UV’s win over China in Bogo was a mere fluke as they took the 6th Asian Universities Basketball Championship, 82-76, Saturday night at the Cebu Coliseum.
However, the Green Lancers showed their warriors’ hearts that brought them seven straight titles of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) and managed to earn the respect of the Chinese.
“They are very good. Their speed is extraordinary. It’s just that we played better than last time,” said China’s point guard, the Chinese-Malaysian Guganeswaran Batumalai, who was named the Most Valuable Player.
The 26-year-old Batumalai, who is on his last year in the university, proudly displayed his MVP trophy. His first ever in his collegiate basketball career in China.
“We do not have MVP awards in China and this is really great for me,” Batumalai said, who will be going back to his father’s homeland, Malaysia, after finishing his studies.
On the other hand, Cabahug admitted that his players were intimidated.
“It is disappointing because we had the edge since we won over them before and we are playing at our home court. They got scared,” Cabahug said.
Batumalai said their play in Bogo was a bit off because they were tired as they had not expected to travel that far. “We just prepared ourselves to play against them this time. That’s why we won,” Batumalai said.
Third failure
This is UV’s third botched attempt at winning a crown in a year following their losses in the Champions League and the National Students Basketball Championships, where they could only finish second.
In the game, UV, which just received a long pep talk from head coach Elmer “Boy” Cabahug started off strong with an 11-7 lead behind Ritchum Dennison and Junjun Lasala.
However, they lost the advantage as quickly as they established it when Batumalai led China to a furious 12-0 rally to take the momentum on their favor and close the period with a 19-11 lead.
Zhang Jiabin and Jiang Xinxin took over in the second frame for a 37-32 lead going into the final half before stretching it to 68-55 in the fourth period behind Yu Xiang’s efforts.
At this point, Cabahug felt his team had to pull out one of the tricks that earned them seven straight Cesafi titles—their trapping defense that works wonders anytime.
The full-court press sent panic on the Chinese forcing them to make turnovers that were converted into points by the Green Lancers.
Down 58-68 in the final four minutes of the game, the Green Lancers initiated a furious rally anchored by Von Lañete, Chris Diputado and Dennison to come four, 66-70.
UV’s rookie point guard and former Cesafi juniors MVP Harold Cincoflores then scored five straight points, including a bonus shot, which he earned after courageously charging the goal against Huaqiao’s 6-foot-10 center Chen Rongren, to inch closer, 74-71 with just 2:35 remaining in the game.
At 2:11, China pulled away again with a basket from Yu. UV called for a timeout but they once again made costly errors at such a crucial moment.
UV’s 6-foot-11 center Greg Slaughter lost the ball and Dennison missed an all-important triple that could have change the flavor of the game.
Batumalai once more took the center stage and scored another basket by slicing past Slaughter, 78-71, with just 58 seconds left in the game, while Jiang and Batumalai sealed the deal by sinking their charity shots.
Yu topped the Huaqiao scorers with 19 points, while Zhang and Batumalai each had 17 points. Slaughter led the Lancers with 15 points while Dennison and Cincoflores had 14 and 12 points, respectively.
