Second-year UST Growling Tigress Eka Soriano was crowned the UAAP Season 85 women’s basketball Most Valuable Player (MVP), while her teammate, Tacky Tacatac, was inducted into the Mythical Five at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday.
Soriano led the MVP race with 92.286 statistical points after averaging 14.36 points, 6.29 rebounds, and league-bests 7.14 assists and 3.71 steals per game to lead the Tigresses to a bronze-medal finish in the season.
UST head coach Haydee Ong said Soriano’s MVP plum was proof of the school’s player development program.
“[These awards] tell us that our program is on the right path…It shows na ‘yung program namin is more on player development,” she told the Varsitarian.
This is the third-straight UAAP season that a Thomasian won the MVP award. Grace Irebu bagged the top player honors in Season 81 and 82.
“We may not get the best recruits, because there’s a lot of recruitment going on sa ibang universities, but what’s important for us is our players improve every year and the team improves, and we want to be competitive all the time,” Ong said.
Ateneo Blue Eagle Kacey De la Rosa took home Rookie of the Year honors after averaging 16.42 points, 14.08 rebounds and 3.08 blocks per game.
Together with Soriano, de la Rosa and Tacatac in the league’s Mythical Team are Ateneo’s Jhazmin Joson and Adamson’s Victoria Adeshina. Bjorn Del B. Deade
