MANILA, Philippines – The heavily favored National University Lady Bulldogs crushed their University of the East counterparts, 80-55, in the sulit.ph BBI Women’s Under-25 tourney at the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center in Quezon City last Sunday.
In other matches, the Adamson Lady Falcons turned back College of Saint Benilde, 67-55, while Enderun College whipped University of Santo Tomas, 51-40.
The Enderun College Lady Titans, three-peat NAASCU women’s basketball champions, broke wide open what had been a close match at the start of the fourth period.
From a slim, 34-32 lead early in the final frame, the Lady Titans dropped a 10-0 bomb on UST, which was held scoreless for almost six minutes. After the Golden Tigresses snapped out of their stupor following a jumpshot by Charlene Javier at the 3:56 mark to make it 44-34, Enderun scored three more points to give themselves more cushion heading into the final two minutes of play.
Enderun punished UST with their dominance inside the paint (20-12 points) and ability to get to the free throw line. The Lady Titans’ aggressiveness saw them attempt 22 free throws while making only half of them. In stark contrast, UST only shot 5-8 from the 15-footline.
Abi Manzanares scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds for Enderun while UST counterpart Elonda Rivera also scored the same number of points to pace her team.
The Lady Falcons built a huge 59-36 lead against the CSB Lady Blazers, after three quarters played. CSB opened the fourth quarter with a 16-4 salvo, 63-52, with 3:02 left to play.
That was the closest they would get as Adamson scored the next four points, 67-52, with time down to 1:05.
Mar Prado (12 points and 13 rebounds) and Novie Ornopia (12 points) led Adamson while Angelica Gener topscored with 14 points.
In the other BBI women’s match, powerhouse National University’s deep bench and balanced scoring overwhelmed UE. No Lady Bulldog scored in double digits (Princess Ganade scored nine followed by three players who chipped in eight markers each) but 10 of the 12 players sent in scored.
Melody Cac scored a game-high 14 points followed by Annick Edimotiky’s 12, but no one else helped in the scoring chores for UE.