Rachel Lacayanga –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
It was a Sunday to remember for University of the East (UE).
The Warriors and Lady Warriors notched highlight victories over La Salle’s basketball squads in UAAP Season 87, grabbing headlines and making history along the way.
“We have our status, too,” John Abate said after shooting at an impressive rate on the way to 20 points in a stunning 75-71 victory over the Warriors at Mall of Asia Arena.
Whatever that status was, it remained buried beneath a sub-.500 record and was only unraveled in the early moments of the Sunday encounter, when UE rushed to a 28-11 lead.
“I will give credit to the boys because during our practice I saw the intensity already and I just told them that we just need to have a good start and as much as possible we keep the game close and the boys responded well,” coach Jack Santiago said.
The portent of things to come came earlier in the day when the Lady Warriors ended a run of 40 straight losses for a program looking to rekindle its once vaunted form.
The UE ladies defeated La Salle, 65-47, drawing a lot of strong performances from their young squad.
“Of course it feels great because we are a rookie team with really new players. This is our goal: to bring back the culture of UE from the [first day] that I started coaching here in UE in 2013 that got lost,” coach Ai Lebornio added.
Day job
The Lady Warriors got a big boost from another returnee and hope to use their Sunday win as a means to grease the wheels of their process.
“Jearzy Ganade came back to help us so I am really thankful,” the longtime UE coach said.
Ganade skipped the last season because of her day job and her return has given the Lady Warriors a leader they can count on and someone who can also contribute tangibly.
“I am really happy to get the win because we have been aiming for this for a long time,” the veteran guard said. “This has been our main goal, to win first, and then step-by-step and everything else will follow.”
“I believe in the process. You are not always on top so I am happy to see our process of rising,” Lebornio said. “The process isn’t easy but we will try to add more to this.”
Rookie Rachel Lacayanga led UE with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
“This is the start. This is already UE, not UE only,” Lacayanga said. “We won’t allow anymore that we will only have losses. We are really working to get the wins.” INQ