Lady Bulldogs go for jugular

Games today:

(Mall of Asia Arena)

10 a.m. — UE vs UST (Junior High School)

1 p.m. — Women’s individual awards

1:30 p.m. — UST vs NU (Women’s)

National University (NU) seeks to complete its redemption tour flawlessly against defending champion University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Game 2 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 87 women’s basketball finals today at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Lady Bulldogs, who are on a 15-game roll, look to wrap up the best-of-three series rematch at 1:30 p.m. to claim their eighth title overall.

NU, which was denied of an eight-peat last year by the Tigresses in the finals series which went the full distance, clawed back from a 14-point hole in the second-half to stun UST, 72-71, last Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

‘We’ll be back stronger.’

NU coach Aris Dimaunahan reminds his wards to keep their guards up as the Tigresses are sure to charge with all their might to force a Game 3 on Sunday.

“Talk about mindset, again our mantra since Day 1 is to and was to improve on the daily. We always want to get better than the day before, and that will still be our mantra, that will still be our mindset to get better from the days before our next game so that we could be more than ready come Game 2,” he said.

“Hopefully, we will play a lot better in Game 2 so that we can go to our target destination this year.”

Freshman Cielo Pagdulagan and veteran Camille Clarin delivered the goods in the series opener.

Pagdulagan charged hard to the basket from the left corner off a give-and-go play from Karl Pingol to give NU a 72-71 lead with 50.3 seconds remaining.

Clarin preserved the victory by locking down defensively on last year’s Game 3 hero Kent Pastrana, forcing her to kick out to Tacky Tacatac, who missed a left corner three as time expired.

Despite the loss, UST coach Haydee Ong remains upbeat that his squad will stay alive to protect the throne.

“Nothing to be ashamed of. The girls did very well and I’m so proud of them. Hopefully, we’ll win. We’ll try to improve on our miscues last game,” she said.

“We’ll be back stronger.”

In the junior high school division, University of the East (UE) and UST will clash in the finals opener slated at 11 a.m.

The well-rested Junior Warriors gained an early passage to the championship after dethroning inaugural champions NU Nazareth School while the Tiger Cubs eliminated No. 2 Far Eastern University-Diliman in the last step ladder semis battle Sunday.

For head coach Andrew Estrella, they are not only focused on their division’s glory, as UE looks to end a 39-year UAAP basketball title drought across all divisions.

“Right now, we are just thinking about the present. It’s been a while since we won a basketball championship. That’s our motivation. We are also motivated to win a championship for Boss Frank (Lao), Boss Jacob (Lao) and Boss Jared (Lao), especially after what happened with Saint Benilde in the NCAA,” Estrella said.