Tag: June 30, 2009

SLOWLY but surely, coach Pido Jarencio’s off-season preparations have been working wonders for the rebuilding Tigers, going into the UAAP Season 72 cage wars.

Armed with an effective transition game, the UST Tigers-Dickies squad entered the 2009 Millennium Basketball League (MBL) finals with a 94-84 semifinal dismantling of Wang’s Ballclub-Batch 96 last June 15 at the Rizal Technological University (RTU) gym.

Jarencio said the tune-up allowed the Tigers to gauge their preparedness for the much tougher UAAP season ahead. He said the team still had to work on several areas, especially defense.

“But what’s good is that the boys have a winning attitude,” he said, noting that the Tigers competed against former PBA players. “They gained more experience and they believed more in themselves.

Both UST and Wang isplayed a fluid inside and outside shooting to jumpstart the match with a high-scoring first quarter, 27-20, in favor of UST.

THE UST Tiger Cubs succumbed to inexperience down the stretch against a more seasoned Colegio de San Juan de Letran Squires to absorb a 76-79 finals heartbreaker and kiss their Nike Summer League (NSL) 2009 title aspirations goodbye last June 10 at the Far Eastern University (FEU) gym.

Despite the absence of key players Cederick Labing-isa and Kevin Ferrer, who were training with the RP Youth Team, the Tiger Cubs stayed close with the veterans of Letran.

Jazreel Jimenez’ outside sniping put UST within three, 75-78, with less than a minute left in the contest.

But a defensive lapse by UST in the next possession sent Letran point guard Mark Cruz to the stripe with 16 seconds remaining. Cruz split his charities to give the Intramuros-based cagers a four-point margin, 75-79.

DUE TO the heightened alert against the influenza A(H1N1) virus, an international judo tournament which UST was set to host last May 16 to 17 at the UST gym was postponed for September or October later this year.

“Everything has already been put into place – trophies, banners and of course, the list of athletes,” Jojo Arce, Tiger Judokas head coach and one of the main organizers of the event, told the Varsitarian. “It was very disappointing that the participating universities of Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore all backed out at the last minute because of this virus.”

The tournament titled “Unending Grace: UST Friendship Games” aims to foster camaraderie among nations in line with the University’s quadricentennial promotion.