NU Lady Bulldogs have chance to start another reign of supremacy

Marlo Cueto/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Around this time last year, National University (NU) saw an end to its dynastic reign in the UAAP women’s basketball tournament.

It was a domination never seen before in the league, and one can only imagine the feeling how Christmas last year felt like. This time, the Lady Bulldogs will do a lot of merrymaking again.

The Bulldogs are back as queens of the UAAP after chopping down University of Santo Tomas behind a huge third quarter on the way to a 78-73 victory in the decider of their best-of-three title series at Smart Araneta Coliseum on Sunday.

READ: UAAP: ‘Just the start’ for top rookie, Finals MVP Cielo Pagdulagan

It was the fruit of all the work they did, which started after they had licked their wounds when the Growling Tigresses unseated them last season. And all the emotion that flowed on the court—coming from both teams—was very understandable.

“I am so proud to be the captain of this winning team,” graduating star Camille Clarin said. “It just goes to show that when everyone sets aside their own agenda, puts their egos aside, puts the we over the me, great things are gonna happen.

“This team has been through the gutter. The fact that everybody rose up to the challenge is amazing,” she went on.

Even first half

Both teams were toe-to-toe up until halftime, which ended at 38-all, before the Bulldogs bared their teeth to create a 15-point cushion and leave the collapsing defending champions biting their dust after a 26-12 exchange in the third quarter.

The Tigresses tried to doggedly make a game out of it in the fourth, with two Ana Tacatac treys cutting their deficit to 75-70, only for Clarin to take charge and put an exclamation point to another dominating season.

Clarin, aside from playing splendid defense, made six of her last eight free throws—the final nails in the Santo Tomas coffin that completed NU’s redemption story.

“These girls really showed me what it takes to fight until the end,” Clarin said. “I know I made them better, and I know they made me better and I am just so thankful that the ball fell on our court and we’re champions again.”

Finals MVP Cielo Pagdulagan, despite going 5-for-15 from the floor, led all Bulldogs shooters with 21 points that came mostly from the charity line. She also had nine rebounds. Karl Pingol added 10 points and nine rebounds.

It was indeed a sorry loss for the Tigresses, who made it back to the Finals after going through the stepladder semis and dealing the Bulldogs their only loss of the season, a 78-68 drubbing in Game 2 that actually made them the slight favorites in the rubber match.

“I am very, very, very satisfied with how we conducted ourselves this year. These players were on it since Day 1 of our training camp,” Aris Dimaunahan, now a two-time champion coach since taking over from Pat Aquino three years ago, said. “We asked so much from them, but you cannot question their effort every day.

“This is the fruit of our labor,” Dimaunahan went on. “The entire year we waited [for this]. I am really happy for the players because we had our first loss of the season in Game 2 but they did not break, the more they kept their focus, the more they became hungrier for this win.”