Game today:
Cebu Coliseum
5:30 pm – UV vs SWU (Srs.)
Arc Gabrielle Araw-Araw proved to be the ray of sunlight that the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles needed when things appeared bleak.
The 5-foot-6 guard towed the Eagles to an 80-76 victory over the University of the Visayas Baby Lancers to take Game 1 of the best-of-five finals series in the 12th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. boys basketball tournament yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.
Araw-Araw, who took his talents to national juniors hoops factory San Beda for a year before making his way back to Cebu, hit one big shot after another, including the game-winning layup with 13.7 seconds left that completed his team’s comeback from a 10-point deficit in the third period.
He finished with 20 points, 11 coming in the penultimate canto.
The defending champion UV hit its stride in the third and built a 62-52 lead with just seconds remaining in that stretch.
With Dawn Ochea hobbled with foul trouble, things were looking to be on the dark side for the Eagles as they trailed, 66-73, after a runner by UV’s star and league MVP Paul Desiderio with 5:54 left.
However, Araw-Araw was unfazed as he fuelled an 8-0 run with a three-pointer. Then, after two freebies by Ochea, he hit a freethrow and followed that up with a high-looping trey from the left wing that gave the Eagles the lead, 75-73, with 1:46 left.
Desiderio tied the game at 76-all with a teardrop with 50.6 on the clock. But Araw-Araw had one last trick up his sleeve as he left his defender in the dust and banked in the go-ahead layup, that kissed the glass and in for a 78-76 tally.
UV had one last shot but Ernesto Limitares stepped on the baseline on the ensuing possession and SHS-AdC’s Janjan Jaboneta sealed the deal with two freethrows.
“Nothing is impossible. We have to stay humble and keep working hard because it’s far from over. We just have to take it one game at a time,” said Araw-Araw after the match.
Desiderio was his usual unstoppable self with 31 points but had little help from the rest of his UV teammates.
UV VS. SWU
Meanwhile, Game 1 of the best-of-five finals series between the UV Green Lancers and the Southwestern University Cobras kicks off today at the same venue.
These two teams have battled back and forth in oftentimes physical and bloody fashion in age-old grudge matches that go way back to the 1960s.
Fast forward to 2012 and another chapter is set to be forged this season as the Cobras aim to claim the title that eluded them last year while UV hopes to reclaim its place atop the league after lording it in its first 10 years of existence.
UV team manager, Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas, is confident with his team.
“You’ll see a UV team that you’ve never seen in the past few years. A team that is hungry to reclaim lost glory. We want that championship so bad that we will do whatever it takes to win,” said Gullas yesterday.