The University of Baguio Cardinals and the University of the Cordilleras Lady Jaguars showed they were a class of their own in this year’s Baguio-Benguet Educational Athletic League. It is just ironic that these dominant performances came in unison with a similar situation that happened in the UAAP and Philippine NCAA this year.
The Cardinals finish the elimination round with an 8-0 record to get themselves an automatic finals berth in the 33rd BBEAL Basketball tournament and send the semis to a stepladder format.
When the semis joust was finally settled, the Cardinals simply imposed their might as they caged the University of the Cordilleras (UC) Jaguars, 92-51, to complete their unbeaten season and retain their Men’s Basketball title.
The spread in the score is considered to be one of the biggest in the history of the league.
On the other hand, the Lady Jaguars were virtually unchallenged by the other three participating teams this year. The Lady Jags swept the double round robin eliminations and was handed the ladies championship without a playoff as a result.
The undefeated Lady Jaguars won all their six games by a beating, averaging 37.5 points winning margin..
The Lady Jags’ dominance was proven to be about their ability to blow out the competition as confirmed by their decisive routs over the other three participants, a 53-point winning margin against the Lady Navigators, their highest in the tournament, a 50-point shellacking of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Lady Cavaliers and a 43-point pounding of the Lady Cardinals.
It was an uncanny coincidence that the same thing happened in the UAAP and NCAA.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles swept the UAAP eliminations, 14-0, which sent them straight to the finals and finished off University of Santo Tomas in two games to complete their turbulentless flight to a three-peat.
The San Beda Red Lions also did the same in the NCAA eliminations, sweeping with an 18-0 card. Unfortunately, the ran into an old rival, Letran Knights, who lost respectively in both elimination games. The Knights suddenly found an antidote and took two of the best of three finals games that were all decided by three points or less.
By: Armando M. Bolislis
