Lady Bulldogs defeat Lady Tamaraws to Capture First-Ever Crown #UAAP77
By Jamil Buergo
October 4, 2014
The NU Lady Bulldogs tightened their defense in the second half to beat the FEU Lady Tamaraws, 59-48, to capture their first title via an impressive 16-game sweep of the Season 77 UAAP women’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Lady Tamaraws tried to hand NU their first loss of the season early in the game as they dominated the first half. But as the second half started, the Sampaloc based dribblers tightened their defense and forced FEU to turn the ball over and just allowed them to shoot from outside. NU was able to score 24 points off the total 37 turnovers of FEU. On the other hand, FEU only managed to score 18 points in the second half despite scoring 19 points in the first quarter alone.
NU head coach Patrick Aquino credited the girl’s desire to win the whole season. For them, their season started immediately after their loss to La Salle last year. “From the start of the UAAP, we talked about it na one game at a time. We didn’t care about losing or winning, basta we just played our best every time, until the end.” says Aquino.
Finals MVP Gemma Miranda paced NU with 14 points while Trixie Antiquera provided the crucial points in the final quarter as she scored back to back triples that includes a rare four point play that gave them a comfortable 56-47 lead.
Ana Valenzona led the scoring for FEU with 14 points while Jacq Tanaman had 10 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists.
The scores:
NU 59 – Miranda 14, Antiquiera 12, Tongco 12, Bernardino 6, Abriam 4, Gupilan 4, Paig 3, Escoto 2, Sison 2, Nabalan 0.
FEU 48 – Valenzona 14, Siat 10, Tanaman 10, Arellado 8, Ventura 4, Castro 2, Baldonado 0, Gabriel 0, Chan 0, Lozano 0.
Quarterscores: 13-19, 29-30, 40-36, 59-48
Follow the writer on Twitter: [social link=”https://twitter.com/jamilbuergo” icon=”62218″]
