USC tops women's Adidas Streetball

MANILA — It's mission accomplished for the University of San Carlos Lady Warriors as they established themselves as the last National Women' s champion of the Adidas Streetball Challenge at the Music Hall of SM Mall of Asia here.

The Lady Warriors have lost the chance to get the ticket to the Asian Championships in China after the Warriors lost in the do-or-die battle against the Mindanao bets in the semifinal round, 7-5, but they had something to look forward to in the women's action.

The Cebuano female dribblers were also in the same precarious situation as the their male counterparts, as they had to win twice against the Luzon squad before earning a slot into the finals.

The battle opened with a 9-6 victory for USC, the Visayas' representative in this final Adidas streetball challenge.

After a short rest, the higly-spirited USC girls, continued to pounce on, leading the charge in the decider battle until an unfortunate incident happened to one of its most reliable player, Carol Diane Cumahig, with 15.23 seconds left in the 12-minute action.

Cumahig fell hard into the court and hurt her head badly. She was rushed to a nearby hospital for check-up leaving USC with only three players.

But Lou Therese"Nina" Regidor provided the leadership and claimed the ticket to the finals against the equally-talented Mindanao squad, winning, 4-1.

"Kaya nga namin sila (Mindanao), pero ang problema nito, mauubos kami," said coach Mike Reyes.

Mindanao led, 4-0, until Barbie Selada connected a two-pointer and followed it up by a free throw and a lay-up by Regidor that tallied the game to 4-all.

The game came to a sudden halt following a fireworks display outside the Music Hall that gave the Cebuanas a good breathing space in the last seven minutes.

Then Cebuanas grabbed the lead, 7-4, but fearing of fouling out, they had to keep easy with its defense that ended the regulation game at 8-all.

No overtime was made in the battle and so the tie will have to be settled with a shootout.

It was only Junnelle Narsiso from USC who successfully made the shot to secure the title for the Cebu bets.

A few minutes later, Mindanao took the National men's title after pulling an upset win against NCR's Faith Academy, preventing the country from sending foreign players with coach Ryan Gregorio to the Asian Finals set later this month.