BAP-SBP, CEBUANA PARTNERSHIP FOR RP WOMEN
October 02, 2007

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 The Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas ( SBP ) and Cebuana Lhuillier has formalized their partnership and sponsorship agreement covering the national women's basketball team that will be competing in both the SEABA championships and the SEA Games both set in Thailand this year.

"On our part, we really need every help we can get for the team and we appreciate the return of Cebuana Lhuillier to the national basketball development program. With it's support, we believe we have improved the chances of our women's team in both the tournaments they are joining, " said SBP president Manny Pangilinan who met recently with Jean Henri Lhuillier and Ambassador Philippe J. Lhuillier and formalized the agreement.

On his part, sportsman-businessman and president -CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier JH Lhuillier expressed that " we welcome this opportunity to be partners with SBP in this program for the women's team, basketball has always been close to my heart and I am happy about this development. Instead of pursuing our plans to continue in the PBL, we will now channel our resources to helping the women's team which I believe has good chances in SEABA and SEA Games. "

According to RP Cebuana women's team head coach Fritz Gaston, his team will target making it to the finals in the SEABA and the gold medal at the SEA Games. " Our first game at the SEABA will be against Vietnam whom I think we will beat, but it will be after our game against Thailand that I can be more definite about our overall chances, Malaysia and Thailand will be our toughest opponents there."

The team will definitely have a Fil-Am player in Vicky Brick for the SEABA as she has agreed to play for the national team and is expected to arrive and join the team early October, however the other Fil-Am player being eyed, Crissy Dizon , has already joined a German basketball club for a long term contract and could not join the team.

SBP Executive Director believes that for a long term women's basketball program to bear positive results, there is a need to put in place a women's commercial basketball league, " as it is , our players have nowhere to go and that is why we plan to put up this women's league as soon as possible, as part of our overall development program for women's basketball, " this from SBP Executive Director Patrick Gregorio.

With the return of Cebuana Lhuillier to the national basketball program, it can only mean well for the sport.

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Ateneo Dual Meet Champs, 3-2, but missed UAAP Season
September 30, 2007

Sunday, 30th September 2007Cholo Villanueva, before saying goodbye to the UAAP, assured everybody that there will be a family feud in the finals of the 70th UAAP men’s basketball tournament.

Villanueva delivered the key baskets in the final period as De La Salle University bamboozled Ateneo De Manila University, 65-60, for a title-showdown with unbeaten University of the East last September 30, 2007 at the Araneta Coliseum.

The 6-foot-2 combo guard Villanueva, playing his last year in the UAAP, fired 9 of his 13 points in the pivotal fourth quarter with one crucial offensive rebound in the same period to seal the victory that mattered most.

“This is my last Ateneo game because I’m a graduating student,” said Villanueva, who shot 5-of-8 in the two-point field. “So I really want to make this game very, very memorable, and I did.”
After Villanueva’s lay up that provided the Green Archers their biggest advantage, 55-46, with 5:29 minutes to go in the last quarter, Eric Salamat scored on a three-point play to trim down the Blue Eagles’ deficit to 55-49 with 4:56 minutes to go.

But Villanueva stretched the La Salle advantage to nine, 58-49, after firing a triple with 4:19 minutes left in the game. Despite Ateneo’s effort to reduce the deficit to 55-60 in the last two-minute mark, Villanueva, again, came up with an answer by hitting a jumper to give La Salle a 62-55 cushion with a minute remaining.

The Blue Eagles, still resisting, had narrowed the gap to only two, 60-62, after Clifford Arao scored on two free throws and Severino Baclao made a triple with 11 seconds left.

Ateneo’s attempts to come back were futile as it absorbed two turnovers, forcing them to send Joseph Casio and Rico Maierhofer to the free throw line.

Casio converted both free throws and Maierhofer split his charities with few seconds remaining before the buzzer.

“I guess two is better than three,” said La Salle mentor Franz Pumaren, referring to the Green Archers’ three losses and two wins against archrival Ateneo this season. “I told my players that they worked hard for this so they deserved to be in the finals.”

Ateneo extended the series to a do-or-die game after winning last September 27 via a 65-64 squeaker through Chris Tiu’s breakaway lay up.

Tiu, who only had 10 points, scored only two points in the final period due to La Salle’s outstanding defense.

“We learned our mistake in our previous losses to Ateneo particularly last week,” said Pumaren. “I’m glad we are able to solve the Ateneo puzzle.”

It looked like La Salle had prepared an effective game plan this time as it controlled the game the rest of the way after leading the first (16-14), second (29-26) and third (48-43) quarters.

After they were out-rebounded last Thursday (Sept. 27), 41-29, the Green Archers, this time, had 51 rebounds – including 19 offensive rebounds – against 36 for the Blue Eagles and registered only 6 offensive rebounds.

Also in their previous game, Ateneo registered 23-out-of-49 (46.9%) from the field against La Salle’s 22-out-of-63 (34.9%) to help them stretch the series.

But this time, La Salle hit 27-out-of-73 (37%) total field goals while Ateneo made only 18-out-of-56 (32.1%).

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