After ‘sweetest’ title win, UV’s Suerte eyes pro stint

University of the Visayas (UV) star Rey Anthony Suerte has announced that he will be foregoing his final year of eligibility in the Cesafi to pursue a career in the pros, beginning, hopefully, with a stint in the PBA D-League.

The 24-year-old disclosed his plans moments after he led the Green Lancers to a third straight championship in the Cesafi with a 74-61 win over the University of San Jose-Recoletos Jaguars in Game 3 of the finals on Monday.

Along the way, he also added more hardware to his collection, winning the Most Valuable Player award for the second time in the last three years and was also selected to the Mythical Five.

The title and the awards were the perfect ending to what had been the “sweetest” title campaign in his stint with the Green Lancers.

“It was really difficult because we really got off to a slow start. We lost our first two games. And just when we were starting to recover, we then lost several players to injuries. We went through a lot of struggles but fortunately, peaked at the right time,” said the pride of Monkayo, Compostela Valley.

The recent graduate also went some tough times in the finals, particularly in Game Two, where he shot an awful 7-of-27 from the field.

“The first thing the coaches told me was to play tough defense, then organize the team and make that extra pass,” the 6-foot-3 guard relayed.

In Game 3, it helped that his teammates picked up the slack when he struggled, notably reserve Ted Saga, rookie Jafet Claridad and starting point guard Gileant Delator, who played heavy minutes in the rubbermatch after playing sparingly in the first two games because of an injured hamstring.

Asked to rank where this title stood of the three that he helped the team claim, Suerte, without batting an eyelash, blurted that this one took the cake.

“This is the sweetest just because of all the things we had to go through.”