The Varsitarian

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.”

With the hefty Buenacosa riding the bench in the pivotal third quarter after suffering a leg injury, the Tigresses struggled to contain Adamson point guard Katherine Sandel and Daphne Tecson who both presided over the Lady Falcons’ fourth quarter breakaway, 47-58. UST got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Effectively shackling the middle amid the Lady Falcons’ intimidating presence, the Tigresses zoomed to an early scoring rampage anchored on Mythical Team members Buenacosa and Marichu Bacaro. But the black-gold-white cagebelles, limping from exhaustion and the absence of Buenacosa in the third stanza, failed to keep the tempo in the second half.

The Tigresses opened the match with an 8-2 salvo sparked by a Bacaro lay-up. But the Lady Falcons hardly panicked, running their offensive sets to the letter which slowly chipped away UST’s six-point lead, 22-19, at the end of the first quarter.

The España-based crew then rode on its inside-outside game in the second period to sustain the momentum for UST, before the Lady Falcons leaned on the exploits of Sandel and Tecson who took turns in puncturing UST’s interior defense en route to a 33-35 halftime lead.

Nikki Leonardo paced the Tigresses with 13 points while Buenacosa registered a double-double performance of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Tecson topscored for the Lady Falcons with 17 points while the tournament’s Most Valuable Player Sandel added 15 points. Mika Rafaela A. Barrios