UV sweeps championship titles

CEBU, Philippines - Not one, but two championships. This is what the University of the Visayas accomplished as it swept the titles in the 2016 SBP Passerelle tournament backed by Milo at the Cebu City Sports Institute last Saturday.

But the historical feat didn’t come easy.

In the Passerelle division finals, UV rallied in the fourth quarter and nipped defending champion Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu, 60-58, in overtime.

Their younger SBP counterparts also used an endgame kick to score a 60-52 win over a fighting SHS-Ateneo side that kept the game close after falling behind earlier in the game.

In the Passerelle finals, UV fell behind 34-40 at the end of the third quarter after taking a 26-23 halftime lead. In a see-saw fourth quarter, UV clawed their back to tie the game and take a 48-46 lead behind the efforts of Osias Padilla, Joshua Canoy and Steve Enriquez.

Chico Chan and Mark Dumandan gave SHS-Ateneo the lead at 51-48 but Canoy and Padilla returned the favor to grab a 52-51 lead for UV, 1:41 left.

John Aguilar then made a basket and a free throw for a 54-52 lead for the Magis Eagles with four seconds left in the game. But the Lancers didn’t give up as Padilla scored off a beautiful drop pass from Enriquez to send the game into overtime.

The overtime period was all UV after Angelo Jabalon gave SHS-Ateneo a 56-54 lead. Canoy drilled a triple to regain the lead for UV at 57-56 before Padilla scored anew for a 59-56 lead with 1:23 left.

Aguilar scored on a putback to slice the lead to 59-58 with 40 seconds left. After both sides couldn’t score, Enriquez split his charities with seven seconds left for the final score.

Padilla and Canoy combined for 25 points to lead UV. Jabalon led SHS-AdC with eleven. Canoy was named MVP of the tournament.

In the SBP game that was just as close, UV squandered a 10-point lead before recovering in the endgame to put away a stubborn SHS-Ateneo team.

After UV took a commanding 35-25 halftime lead, SHS-Ateneo rallied to take a 43-41 lead going into the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter was nip and tuck with both sides trading baskets and leads. After a 47-all tie, UV took a 51-47 lead with 1:25 left.

Jared Bahay drilled a triple to slice the lead to 51-50 with 1:07 remaining. Sean Salarza replied with his own trey for a 54-50 UV lead with one minute left.

After Budoy Porter sliced the lead to 54-52 with 49 seconds left, Salarza’s split from the free throw line and Mike Monton’s sixth triple of the game with 24 seconds left sealed the win and UV’s second straight SBP championship.

Monton led UV with 22 points while Franc Gabunada added 10. Bahay, Porter and Dylan Lim had seven points apiece for SHS-Ateneo de Cebu. Gabunada grabbed the MVP award for the tournament.

Inspired by the presence of UV team manager Cong. Samsam Gullas, UV scored their first ever SBP Passerelle double championship. The two teams will represent Cebu in the SBP Passerelle Visayas Regional Finals backed by Milo in Roxas City November 19-20. They will face off against the champions of Roxas, Bacolod and Iloilo. (FREEMAN)