THE FACULTY of Arts and Letters (AB) Women’s Basketball Team demolished the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management (CTHM), 57-28, to preserve its unbeaten record and inch closer to securing a playoff seed in this year’s Thomasian Goodwill Games.
AB’s Alaina Dimdam finished with 24 points—13 of which coming from a huge third quarter rally—while her backcourt tandem, Jonne Senga, dropped 16 points last April 4 at the P. Noval Gym.
The two squads started sloppy in the opening quarter but AB managed to set the pace as Dimdam grabbed defensive rebounds and scored a hook shot, 12-4.
CTHM seemed like a squad ready to upset last year’s runner-up with Bea Danica Benito dropping two consecutive bombs from the arc and cutting the deficit to four, 17-21.
But AB closed the first half of play with a six-point advantage, 25-19.
CTHM still had numerous chances to fight back and take the lead but a scorching Dimdam took over in the third period and shut the doors closed for CTHM.
AB’s eight-point lead at 33-25 swelled into a 17-point advantage. The Dapitan-based squad outgunned its opponent with a nine-to-nothing run before the deciding quarter, 42-25.
Despite AB’s 23 turnovers, CTHM barely converted those into points. Senga pulled a flashy spinning lay-up to push the lead further,47-26.
CTHM had nothing left in its gas tank and could not mount another run as AB continued to bombard its opponent with points inside the paint, 55-28.
AB’s floor general and team captain Senga, despite downing all their opponents, demanded better team defense. “Siguro since nakita namin ‘yung kakulangan namin sa defense, [gusto naming] mag-focus kami sa defense namin [at] lesser ‘yung fouls. […] Focus lang din sa sistema kasi meron naman kaming ti-ni-training, ‘di lang minsan na-de-deliver talaga.”
Meanwhile, Dimdam had to admit that this season was a hard one, since most of their starters had already graduated.
“Hirap din kami [kasi] nabawasan kami talaga ng mga senior namin. Pero ‘yung this year kasi parang sinabi na lang namin na i-pu-push na lang namin ‘yung sarili namin. ‘Yung togetherness namin ‘yung kailangan namin kasi nabawasan kami,” Dimdam said. “Basta every game lang, work hard lang kami as a team. […] Hindi namin iniisip na malakas din kami basta […] trabaho lang.” F ANGELIQUE ANNE F. TORRES
