Olympians learn from Maroons

This is it. This is the STI College Olympians for the 9th NAASCU Tournament. Although they experienced another beating from another UAAP team, the resilient Olympians showed better ball movement and improved their man to man defense. After months of practicing and trying to put together a good team the Olympians have finally shown that they can contend with the big guns by coming together as a team.

The Olympians still lost to the Maroons but as they say it was how the game was played and how the Olympians have been gelled as a team fort the past months. In the first quarter the Maroons seized the upperhand right away through their veterans Jay Agbayani, Martin Reyes, Arvin Braganza and Mark Lopez. The Olympians on the other hand were more focused on defense as they found it hard to puncture the hoop. Center Martin Antonio paced the Olympians as he stood toe to toe against the big boys of the Maroons. Complementing him is center forward Maclean Sabellina and rookie guard Mark Orrias

The Maroons were also trying to practice their pressure defense and when they did the Olympians found it hard to bring the ball to the front court as their press break was not in sync. When the Olympians finally broke the press through Nonoy Crisostomo’s passing, cutting and ball handling skills, the Olympians settled down, got some fastbreaks and threatened the Maroons 26-28 with a minute in to go at the half. Unfortunately though, the Olympians relaxed in the final 30 seconds that made the Maroons score 7 unanswered points.

The second half was more of a chess match until the final 5 minutes when the Maroons courtesy of their new scoring leader Mike SIlungan scored inside and outside while the Olympians did not have an answer to the high flying UP main man. Tom Washington was also a factor in defense and was adequate on offense. The new Olympians are now getting accustomed to their roles and hopefully improve more by the time the Father Martin’s Cup comes.

The team will be bannered by veterans Martin Antonio and Tom Washington at center, the forwarrds are Maclean Sabellina, Raffy Waminal, Bryan Daguplo, Guards Norman Ihalas, Paul Sabacahan, Nonoy Crisostomo, and the injured Macky Macabasco. This year’s rookies are guards JC Po and Mark Orias and forward Vergelio Cariño. Hopefully this summer the team can still get four more rookies for this year's team. Bottomline, they improvement is beggining to show.