PAGADIAN, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR — Joel Lee Yu has been a household name in the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup.
And he introduced himself anew Friday night.
Lee Yu carried Globalport-MisOr to the victory after his clutch baskets to defeat host team Pagadian, 79-77, at the City Gymnasium here.
The Explorers came back from 13 points down and took the lead late, 77-74, with 49.2 seconds remaining.
Then the Cebuano Ninja dominated.
After a miss by Judel Fuentes from deep, the Valientes were off to the races, finding Lee Yu all alone for the breakaway basket to inch within one, 76-77.
In the ensuing play, Pagadian’s own John Quimado committed his eighth turnover to give MisOr a brand new possession with 12 seconds to go.
Valientes’ Joseph Nalos attempted a wild layup but did not fall. Luckily, Lee Yu was there for the putback while being fouled in the process by Fuentes. He then coolly converted the bonus free throw with 6.9 ticks left.
With one last chance, Quimado penetrated to the basket but to no avail to give MisOr its third win in four outings.
“Sila Coach Vis Valencia, sila Kuya Mac Baracael, sila Kuya Reil Cervantes, sila Kuya Jason Ballesteros sila yung nagbibigay ng kumpyansa sa akin,” shared Lee Yu.
“Sabi nila sa akin make or miss tumira lang ako kasi sila ‘yung rerebounds para sa akin. Nagtitiwala sila sa shooting ko.”
And it was a new and better environment for Lee Yu this Mindanao Challenge.
In the first conference, he suited up for Iligan who lost all its five games before pulling out of the season due to “internal problems”.
He led the Archangels in scoring back then with 15.6 points but his efforts went down the drain, not even getting a single win.
However, he has no ill feelings toward Iligan. He was still thankful for bringing him back to basketball during the pandemic.
But boy it feels good to finally win games and be part of a contender.
“Sobrang saya ng feeling ngayon kasi nasa team ako na contender na kayang mag go all the way,” said the 5-foot-10 slasher.
And he has veterans in Cervantes and Baracael he can rely on for advice and tips, with one thing connecting them – being a Tamaraw.
“Kasama ko ‘yung mga kuya ko na FEU dati na kahit hindi ko sila naabutan pero nandiyan sila lagi nag-gaguide sa akin,” he said.
“Sobrang dali nila kasama kahit naabot na nila ‘yung top, down to earth pa rin sila. Lagi nila akong tinuturuan kasi alam nilang ako ‘yung bata.”
