SIP cagers lead list of individual award winners

A season featuring 12 teams battling it out for supremacy finally ended with Samahang Ilokano at Pangasinense-Flor A. Miranda/C&J Sign winning its fourth title in six years.

The win came courtesy of impressive performances by each member of its roster, but three stood out and took home individual awards during a brief ceremony held after the championship game of the Budweiser-Coca Cola 6th UFO Inter-Organizational Basketball League Sunday night at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Leading the group was veteran Edsel Mendoza, who despite missing many games in the regular season, was able to make his presence felt in the playoffs to lead SIP to the title and earn the finals most valuable player honor. The other two were starting guard Elmer Esdrelon and key reserve Bryan Flores.

“Overall, I kind of missed a lot in the regular season. I knew I had to make up a lot toward the playoffs and in the championship. Fortunately we won everything and it’s all about teamwork and having a good time…just hard work I think pays off,” Mendoza said of his team’s push.

The many-time National team player had early leaned toward retiring from the sport, however, he had a change of heart after his teammates convinced him to lace up for the remainder of the season.

“My intention was already to retire but the guys, they called me and they said “we need to finish this league,” and I gave it a shot,” he said.

Mendoza said the loss in Game 2 last March 12 was primarily due to lack of effort, and expressed his satisfaction with the way his team turned things around in Game 3.

“In Game 2, we were totally flatfooted…just standing around and not putting effort into it, but [Sunday night] everybody was one heart and in one direction and that was to play hard and have a good time,” he said. “Everybody was all focused. We don’t like to lose as a team and I guess that loss in Game 2 helped the guys get hungrier to win.”

“The key is communication and we got to accept our mistakes and we make up for that by correcting it and playing together,” he added.

Mendoza admitted that SIP was given a good run, especially when Cabalen cut what was once a 20-point deficit into just nine points mid-way through the fourth period.

“The only thing is at that time, its all about free throws because they’ll start fouling you and as long as you make one shot out of the two, you’ll be alright and just go back and [play defense] and you should be okay. The time was short already so it was going to be hard for them to catch up. Bottom line, we had a good time.”

Mendoza also expressed appreciation to all who supported the league throughout the season.

“I would like to thank UFO under the leadership of Roland Pamintuan for their hard work and commitment for giving all of us players a successful season. Also I want to give credit to Elmer Pineda and the whole Cabalen team for a very challenging series. I also want to thank coach Rufino Aguon for keeping SIP in check and a big thank you to my family and the entire SIP fans for all support throughout the season,” he said.

Mendoza and teammate Esdrelon were also members of the Mythical Five Team, joining Andres Estolas of LIPS-Mobil, and Ronald Delos Reyes and Dalewin Cortez of Cabalen.

As reported earlier, SIP sniper Bryan Flores was best in three points, Jawn Joyner and Bing Marasigan of Visminda were best in assist and free throw, Cortez was best in block shots, Chris Domingo of Cavite-Country House was best in steals, Marlon De Dios of MDX Amateur Radio-Armatech was best in rebounds, and Rowel Aranda of LIPS-Mobil was the top scorer for the season.

Cabalen’s Randy Arnedo was also named regular season most valuable player, while James Abuy of LIPS-Mobil was also crowned three-point rainbow king. William Opone of 287 Club-McDonald’s was honored as rookie of the year.