MANILA, Philippines – The NU Lady Bulldogs emphatically reasserted their claim as the greatest UAAP women’s basketball program of the modern era as they dethroned the UST Growling Tigresses in a Season 87 finals Game 3 heart-stopper, 78-73, at the Araneta Coliseum on Sunday, December 15.
Rookie of the Year Cielo Pagdulagan, who also bagged the Finals MVP award, proved she is truly the next woman up in the vaunted NU program, scoring 10 of her 21 points in the Lady Bulldogs’ third-quarter pullaway that transformed a 38-all deadlock to a 65-50 advantage heading to the fourth.
UST in its entirety barely outscored Pagdulagan, 12-10, as it ate up a 27-12 scoring surge in the telling third frame.
“First of all, I’m very satisfied with how we conducted our year. These players were on it since day one of our training camp. We asked so much in them at you can’t discount their effort every day,” said two-time champion coach Aris Dimaunahan.
“They’re killing each other in practice, from first group to the third group. Our competition in practice is really high. I’m really satisfied. Today is the fruit of our labor the entire year. We waited, we kept our step very cautiously. Our focus everyday was to get better and better.”
Very much aware that they blew a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead against the same opponent in last year’s winner-take-all battle, the Lady Bulldogs refused to let up in winning time, maintaining a 15-point gap in the final 4:57 of play, 72-57, and never backed down from there, despite UST’s best efforts.
The Tigresses still mounted a real comeback scare, rallying with a 10-3 surge to get within four, 75-70, off a Tacky Tacatac three with 1:46 left, before the graduating guard got a bit too excited and rushed another trey that drew air with 1:12 to go, essentially spelling doom for the black and gold.
In the ensuing chaos of the final minute, it was NU senior star guard Camille Clarin who had the coolest head among them all, yanking the rock from UST’s Karylle Sierba with 27 ticks left and sinking the free throws off the duty foul with 21.8 seconds to go for the 77-70 separation.
Not even a late Sierba triple at the 13.5-second mark, 77-73, was enough, as Clarin split her last charity trip off another duty foul to set the final score with 8.4 ticks to play.
Clarin finished off a stellar senior season in possibly her final UAAP game with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals, while fellow veteran Angel Surada also scored 14 with 8 boards, 3 dimes, 4 swipes, and 1 block for a full-line finish.
Game 2 hero Karylle Sierba paced the heartbreaking failed comeback with 20 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in just 22 minutes off the bench, while Tacatac bowed out of the UAAP with 14 points on a 4-of-12 clip from downtown.
Brigette Santos, coming off a 27-point Game 2 explosion, got clamped to just 8 points on 3-of-15 shooting, suffering the same fate as MVP runner-up Kent Pastrana who recorded 7 points, boards, and dimes each on just a 3-of-10 clip.
CJ Maglupay also only had 7 points in the loss, but more than made up for the lack of offense with a staggering 23-rebound haul.
NU 78 – Pagdulagan 21, Clarin 14, Surada 14, Pingol 10, Cayabyab 5, Fabruada 4, Konateh 4, Betanio 3, Canuto 3, Villanueva 0, Bartolo 0.
UST 73 – Sierba 20, Tacatac 14, Santos 8, Soriano 8, Pastrana 7, Maglupay 7, Bron 5, Danganan 4, Serrano 0, Ambos 0.
Quarters: 17-17, 38-38, 65-50, 78-73.
– Rappler.com
