PETERS LEADS FUETSA TO SUPER LEAGUE TITLE

PRESS RELEASE – It was another strange night in the UOG Calvo Field House, as Fuetsa came from behind to beat the U17 Nationals for the championship of the Lady Triton Super League, and the Lady Tritons won the 3rd place game against BallHers.

In the championship game, the U17 Nationals only brought 5 players to the game, and in the end, it would cost them the championship. Both U17 and Fuetsa started the game on fire, as both offenses were primed for points, as Jia Peters led Fuetsa with 13 points on the way to 30 points for the first quarter, while U17 Nationals had a balanced attack with all 5 of their players scoring at least 4 points in the opening quarter and putting up 32 points for the period.

But Fuetsa would control the 2nd quarter, scoring another 21 points with a balanced attack themselves with 4 different players hitting a 3 pointer in the quarter. U17 could only manage 12 points in the quarter and Fuetsa led at halftime, 51-44.

But to start on the 3rd period, Fuetsa went cold shooting and U17 Nationals got a hot again, putting up 24 points on the scoreboard with Lana Quinata scoring 9 points for the U17ers. Fuetsa scored only 11 points in the quarter. 

But the biggest moment of the night happened, when Mara Del Carmen fouled out of the game late in the quarter with an offensive foul called on her driving to the basket. The U17ers would have to finish the game 4 players.

The 4th quarter started with Nationals up by 6 points, 68-62, and they would keep their lead for the first five minutes of the quarter, with the four U17ers holding their own against Fuetsa. But Fuetsa changed their strategy going into the last 4 minutes of the game, putting pressure on the ball and putting an extra person down low to help with the rebounding and the U17 team didn’t have the 5^th body to match up with that strategy. And Jia Peters got hot in the late stages of quarter, scoring 12 points in the quarter and Fuetsa was able to push by the U17 Nationals to take the lead and the win in the game, 88-85.

Jia Peters led all scorers in the game with 35 points while the sister combination of Elysia and Nicolette Perez scored 14 and 13 points for Fuetsa. Lana Quinata led the U17 Nationals with 29 points while the other four players for the U17ers scored between 13-15 points.

Fuetsa ended up the season with a 5-1 record, getting revenge for their sole regular season loss to U17ers 88-86. The U17 Nationals also ended up 5-1 for the season.

In the 3rd place game, the Lady Tritons finished with their best season in over 3 years, by beating the BallHers 68-40 to capture 3rd place, their first .500 season since they finished 2nd to the Andersen Bombers 3 years ago. 

The Tritons lead from the start to finish in the game, taking the lead in the first quarter 17-11 and building on that lead in the 2nd period as BallHers fell cold in the 2^nd period, only scoring 3 points for the 10 minutes and UOG added 13 points in the quarter and led 30-14 at halftime.

The Lady Tritons finished the game in the 3rd period, with Maria Duenas scoring 9 points in the quarter as UOG outscored the BallHers for the quarter 23-9 and push their lead to 30 points 53-23 as they entered the final period. UOG went on to a 68-40 win.

The Lady Tritons had 12 different players score in the game, led by the trio of Amanda Uncangco with 13 and Maria Duenas and Arriah Arceo with 12 each. BallHers were led by Aniahlynn Cruz with 12 points and Anslie Sarsaljo and Crystal Aguon with 10 each.

UOG finished the season with a 3-3 record while BallHers ended up with 2-5 season.

After the championship game, the All-League team was announced with 15 members and the Super League’s MVP was announced as well:

All-League Team:

JusForFuns – Arri Areco

JusForFuns – Demi Shimizu

BallHers – Anslie Sarsalejo

BallHers – Aniahlynn Cruz

Lady Tritons – Arriah Arceo

Lady Tritons – Maria Duenas

Lady Tritons – Amanda Uncangco

U17 Nationals – Zoe Whitehead

U17 Nationals – Zahra Whitehead

U17 Nationals – Gabby Hahn

U17 Nationals – Mara Del Camen

Fuetsa – Elysia Perez

Fuetsa – Nicolette Perez

Fuetsa – Kate Inchun

Fuetsa – Joy Pangelinan

Most Valuable Player – Jia Peters – Fuetsa

The next Lady Triton Super League season will start the last week of January and go through February.