Las Piñas Huskies retain CUSA crown

For the second consecutive year, the Las Piñas College Huskies asserted their dominance in the Colleges and Universities Sports Association (CUSA) basketball tournament with a masterful 90-73 demolition of University of Assumption-Pampanga Pelicans at the Rizal Coliseum recently.

Mainstay Joel Gragasin fired 19 points, including a bundle of treys while Dennis Daa and Crisanto Espera added 18 and 15 points, respectively, to power the Huskies to yet another championship.

But the win didn’t come easy as the Huskies needed to keep the Pelicans without a field goal in a four-minute stretch of the final period.

From a slim 72-69 lead, the Huskies tightened up their defense on the Pelicans.

With half of the job done, Las Piñas then unleashed a telling 11-0 run that finally knocked the wind out of UA-P.

"This is the final game of the season and we have to set aside the fatigue factor here," said Las Piñas coach Mel Alas, brother of NCAA champion coach Louie Alas.

"We were more determined and this was evident in the second game of the series. Our victory in Game 2 was a big morale-boost and our experience also proved to be an advantage in this series," added Alas, who has been two-for-two for Las Piñas College in its finals trips.