Rama, Apas win matches in Ladies caging
CEBU City Olympics finals protagonists the Abellana National Schoolbannered Team Rama and Apas National High School Falcons showed steady hands in the final period to beat the veteran-laden opponents in the resumption of the Cebu Hoops Ladies League at the Cebu City Sports Institute yesterday.
The debuting Apas Falcons bucked a two-hour rest from its City Olympics semifinal game to beat the highly-favored Mikel Tigers, 62-58, while the Team Rama/ANS showed the gritty Arcenals a strong finish for a 66-56 win.
ANS and Apas will vie for the Cebu City Olympics secondary girls gold medal at 8 a.m. today at the Paref-Springdale School in Lahug.
The Tigers took the Falcons lightly and they paid for it dearly as the hungry and determined youngsters quickly built an 18-6 lead in the opening quarter to dictate the tempo of the game.
But the battle-scarred Tigers fought back behind the efforts of its team captain Danica Canitoy, who rallied the team to a 20-9 blast in the second and eventually gained control of the match after in the early parts of the third quarter leading by as much as 10 points 45-35 before the close of the penultimate period.
However, the Tigers lost steam in the final pe- riod as the triumvirate Angela Alcos, Mary Jane Pascual and Kathleen Agustin rallied the Falcons to a win its debut game.
The absence of AnAn Birondo in the fourth quarter took a toll on the Tigers, who badly needed her contribution in the crunch period.
Alcos scored 17 points and Pascual and Agustin made 13 points each for Apas Falcons, while Canitoy scored the game-high 28 points.
Irish Ferraren added 12, while Birondo added 10 for the Mikel Tigers.
Meanwhile, Nina Cuadero had another stellar performance for Team Rama, as she dropped four triples of her gamehigh 18 points for the team’s second win in as many games.
Team Rama/ANS started the game on a 20-9 blast and never allowed the Arcenals to gain momentum despite scoring only six points in the third period.
Florence Jil Talas added 14 points and flashy guard Ma. Kassandra Bayking contributed 12, while April Marie Torres topped the Arcenals with 14 and Dixie Czar Yu finished with 10 points.