By: Louie Razon
De La Salle Zobel seems to be peaking at just the right time. The Junior Lady Archers blew past Assumption College San Lorenzo, 62-36, in an unexpectedly lopsided semifinal in the ongoing WNCAA tournament. Perhaps showing some playoff jitters, the Junior Lady Archers had to content themselves with a slim 15-11 first quarter lead after missing some makeable lay-ups and putbacks. The Alabang girls were playing without senior Sam Razon and the physical style of the girls from San Lorenzo was keeping them in the game. Behind the steady play of reigning MVP Kat Nuñez and senior Angel Caldo, Zobel grew its lead to nine until a spectacular buzzer-beating drive by Nuñez further boosted the score to 37-26.
Then the roof collapsed. A quick 6-0 burst to open the third had ACSL hurriedly calling timeout but It was all for naught however as the Junior Lady Archers completely clamped down on defense. Assumption was limited to just 1 point in 5 minutes and 4 in the entire quarter. After working through early foul trouble, power forward Kristine Teo got untracked and Assumption never recovered from there. The third quarter ended 49-30. Every available player of DLSZ got playing time in the fourth and the lead actually grew even though Assumption never pulled its starters.
With the win, the coach Barry Tobias’ girls get a shot at back-to-back championships in the WNCAA. They face Miriam College, which squeaked past Chiang-kai Shek College in a heart-thumping thriller, 46-44. Both teams enter the Finals with a clean slate, having swept their respective groups and breezing through the quarterfinals. Game 1 of the best-of-three Finals is scheduled for Saturday at the St Scholastica’s College gym.