SOUTHERN de Oro Philippines College (SPC) Sharks finally captured their first ever Loyola Cup title after routing Lourdes College Blue Sash, in college men's finals last Sunday at the Xavier University gym in Cagayan de Oro City.
Both Marlon Daitol and Lee Van Orig delivered 17 points each, while Harvey Alvarez contributed 13 to give SPC coach Rey Dangcal something "very special" to cherish on.
Daitol came just on time as he checked in more than four minutes of the first quarter, as the Blue Sash threatened to dominate after tasting their first and only lead of the game, 15-14.
From there, Daitol sparked a 7-3 run at the close of the first quarter that inspired the SPC Sharks to pad the lead to eight after the first half, 44-36.
After a comfortable 62-51 third quarter finish, the Sharks repeated what they’re good at in the previous outings: simply overpowering the Lourdes College dribblers of coach Ricky Sinco in the fourth and final quarter.
Things went cold for Sinco’s wards as they lost composure in the face of SPC's aggressive full-court trapping defense that resulted to successive turnovers.
Sinco hardly put his second stringers for some help, thereby sticking to his starting five--Andy Valenzuela, Richard Olarte, Ryan Maghanoy, John Eleazar Pacana and Ryan Maghanoy--for most of the time on the floor.
Lourdes could only afford Helmar Francisco, Ken Embaradora and Naz Baluran as relievers. And the Sharks had no problem with it, even racing to their biggest lead of the game at 22.
"We were trying to test Lourdes' agility and we were right on pressuring them from the start," Dangcal said.
Dangcal had enough cards on his bench despite missing the services of LJ Aquino, Mac Labares and Jeff Egan, who is recuperating from dengue fever.
Aquino’s absence also gave Daitol the chance to shine as his back-up pointguard went on winning the MVP trophy.
Daitol also joined Mangayao Dagalangit (MSU), Acoy Pailagao (Professional World Academy), Valenzuela and Eman Akut III (SPC) to the Smart-backed tourney’s mythical five.
With the win, the Sharks completed a four-feat after also winning the Cagayan de Oro Basketball Federation tournament, Pangantucan Invitational, Barra Opol Invitational and now the Loyola Cup before the school year ends.
"Coach was very happy of the title because we never won inside the XU gym," later shared Alvarez.
