RANGED against a veteran laden squad in the NLEX Road Warriors, the reigning Cesafi men’s basketball champions University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers refused to back down against their professional counterparts in the Recoletos Invitational Cup on Thursday night at the University of San Jose-Recoletos Coliseum.
Elbows were thrown, blood was drawn and verbal banter was plenty in a game that the Road Warriors handily won, 102-50.
Despite the rout, the Green Lancers made sure that they were remembered by the pros.
“The boys just stood their ground,” said UV head coach Gary Cortes, himself no stranger to physical play owing to his reputation as a defensive sentinel during his playing years with the Green Lancers. “Besides, they were the ones who initiated the physical contact.”
Even Cortes was not spared from the intense action as he engaged NLEX veteran forward Enrico Villanueva in some trash talk near the end of the one-sided match.
“A player of mine got the best of him in one play and I playfully told him na ‘Matanda ka na!’ (You’re old!). He replied “Mayaman na ako, coach. Ikaw, andyan pa rin’. (I’m already rich, coach. You’re still there),” narrated Cortes.
Action heated up as early as the first quarter when UV guard Alfred Codilla and NLEX’s Carlo Lastimosa figured in a shoving match that earned them a technical foul each. Later, Lastimosa came away with a bloodied lip as he got fouled hard on a drive down the lane.
Cortes said that he just instructed his wards to play physical and not be starstruck with the pros.
“I told them in our huddle that they shouldn’t be scared. NLEX wanted the game to be physical and our boys were more than happy to oblige. It was a lot of fun for them and the crowd as well,” Cortes said.
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