In a battle of undefeated powerhouse teams, University of Santo Tomas ended up on top with a gritty 75-69 win over National University Nazareth School, completing its sweep of the UAAP Season 87 High School Girls’ Basketball first round on Thursday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
The Junior Growling Tigresses leaned on the high-scoring duo of Katrina Insoy and Barby Dajao to power them to a 3-0 record at the end of the first round.
Insoy finished with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from deep while Dajao did everything with 19 points, nine rebounds, eight steals, and seven assists.
“I thought it was an incredibly great game lalo na for the high school ranks. Yung effort ng both teams it’s amazing that’s why we’re very happy na meron na ang girls ng ganitong klaseng platform para makalaro,” said UST head coach Sen Dysangco in the closest game of the tournament so far.
“We played a decent game. It’s still a work in progress so we still have to go back and try to correct yung mga mistakes namin,” he continued.
(C) UAAP Season 87 Media Team
Giorgina Wenceslao’s three-pointer gave the Junior Tigresses a 68-59 lead with 2:51 left in the game but the Lady Bullpups had one more run in them.
Rebekkah Pascua and Aubrey Lapasaran responded for NUNS with a triple and a layup, respectively, but it was answered right away by Lea Pinuela and Wenceslao’s back-to-back buckets to make it 72-64 for UST with 1:05 to go.
Pascua launced another shot from beyond the arc to pull the Lady Bullpups within five but Insoy drained the dagger three points for the Junior Tigresses with 24 seconds to erase any NUNS comeback attempt.
“Nagtulungan lang po talaga kami sa opensa at depensa namin. Nilaro lang talaga namin yung laro namin at kung paano kami magtraining, ganon lang din yung ginawa namin sa laro,” said Dajao.
UST big Kassandra Tambawan also shone brightly in her role despite only making four points as she grabbed 16 rebounds (eight offensive) and swatted six shots while being a plus-18 in her 27 minutes and 19 seconds on the floor.
The Junior Tigresses forced the Lady Bullpups to commit 28 turnovers, capitalizing on it by translating it to 29 points.
UST had 21 turnovers but NUNS only made 10 points off them.
(C) UAAP Season 87 Media Team
Lapasaran led the Lady Bullpups with 22 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals but she was held to just two points in the all-important fourth period.
Zaydhen Rosano chipped in 15 points, 17 rebounds, eight steals, and seven assists in the losing cause while Ashlyn Abong and Pascua had 11 points apiece.
NUNS dropped to the second spot at 2-1.
The Scores:
UST 75 – Insoy 20, Dajao 19, Boteros 9, Pinuela 7, Anonuevo 6, Banate 5, Tambawan 4, Onate 3, Wenceslao 2, Abrantes 0.
NUNS 69 – Lapasaran 22, Rosano 15, Abong 11, Pascua 11, Trinidad 8, Singson 2, Badajos 0, Sales 0, Avila 0.
Quarterscores: 22-13, 38-30, 53-50, 75-69.
