Tag: June 30

OUTGROWING a failed back-to-back title test, the UST Tigresses could have just easily dispatched the harrowing lessons of Season 70 as mere footnotes in its newly devised basketball workbook.

But a lesson, good or bad, enriches experience, a weapon the Peque Tan-mentored squad gamely recognizes.

HOBBLED by the untimely exit of key player Remia Buenacosa, the UST Tigresses surrendered to pressure and crumbled before a towering Adamson University squad, 61-73, in the finals of the 2008 Nike Summer League last June 13 at the Philippine Sports Arena.

“They were just tired, I guess,” Coach Peque Tan told the Varsitarian. “That explained why they came out lifeless by the second half of the game.”

SHE HURDLED every roadblock but the last.

Season 70 Most Valuable Player Rose Anne de la Cruz may have rampaged through a crowd of lightweights en route to booking a finals ticket in the Dunlop Open women’s badminton tournament.

But dominating a seasoned member of the national team proved unlikely as she absorbed a clinical 19-21, 10-21 loss in the singles championship last June 6 at the Powerhouse courts in Makati.

START the year right to end it right.

In 2005, the UST Growling Tigers lost in the UAAP opener against the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons, 66-69. Notching three second-round wins, the Tigers avoided being at the bottom of the standings but failed to enter the Final Four. That was Season 68.

RESILIENCY is key.

Season 69 champions UST Golden Sox lit up the charts early on before thwarting Rizal Technological University’s (RTU) forays down the stretch to sweep the two-game finals series of the 2007 Philippine Amateur Baseball Association Youth Baseball tournament via a 6-4 Game 2 victory last June 9 at the Rizal Memorial Ballpark.

Members of the UST Yellow Jackets finished third place in a dodge ball competition sponsored by I-on energy drink last April at the University of the Philippines College of Human Kinetics gym.

The team was composed of Kristoffer Safno, Eduardo Villoria, Alvis Martin Parco, Gabriel Portubal, Daryl Glenn Porillo, Ace Ponef and Jerome Cuntapay. Purple Cobras and Tangkeros, both from the De La Salle University won first and second places, respectively.

IT WAS in 1995 when the UST Tigresses last tasted a back-to-back UAAP title.

But with all the chips at their grasp, the Tigresses are poised to rewrite that 12-year-old history when they defend their crown as tournament favorites come Season 70.

Losing only three reliables in the off-season, the Tigresses, who wrapped last season’s eliminations with a league-best 9-3 win-loss card, are assured of a relatively intact line-up.

FORMER Glowing Goldies ace slotman Ed Cordero has been named the new commissioner of the UAAP basketball tournament for Season 70.

The 47-year-old Cordero was unanimously chosen over fellow Glowing Goldie and former Growling Tigers coach Aric del Rosario, to head the league’s basketball operations in a UAAP board meeting last June 15.

PIRATES are not only hooked on buried treasures nowadays.

Instead of breeding talents via a juniors program, colleges nowadays prefer raiding a rival school’s athletic farmhouse to “seize” high school standouts come graduation day and fortify their crippled line-ups.

With this alarming trend, the board of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) has come up with a new rule that requires high school graduates transferring to another UAAP member school to serve a one-year residency before playing in the seniors division.

IN A BATTLE of women’s basketball champions, the UST Tigresses prevailed over reigning College and Universitites Sports Association champions, Philippine College of Criminology (PCCr) Lady Enforcers, 78-58, in the finals of the 2007 Nike Summer League last June 8 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

With the victory, the Tigresses erased the stigma of their lone defeat in the tournament against the same Lady Enforcers squad, who dealt them a 47-57 beating in the eliminations last May 9.

“It was our laxity on defense that caused our defeat against PCCr in the eliminations,” coach Peque Tan told the Varsitarian. “We have learned from that mistake by tightening our defense and concentrating more on their two key players (Stineli Casakit and Katrina Garcia).”