FEU's Jorick Bautista celebrates during a victory over NU in UAAP Season 87.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.web
MANILA, Philippines – Jorick Bautista of FEU Tamaraws and Cheesy Tacatac of UST Growling Tigresses showed stellar performances in the final week of the UAAP Season 87 men's and women's basketball tournaments, respectively.
Providing firepower to their teams that went 2-0 during the October 12-19 period, Bautista and Tacatac earned recognition as UAAP Players of the Week from the Collegiate Press Corps (CPC).
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Bautista edged out teammate Mo Konateh in a close vote, La Salle's Kevin Quiambao and Mike Phillips, Ateneo's Andrew Bongo and UP's Francis Lopez for the weekly recognition.
READ: UAAP: FEU's Jorick Bautista sees a silver lining amidst struggles
The 5-foot-11 guard posted 19.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 steals to emerge as the scribes' top pick in the men's tournament.
In a close battle against Adamson on October 12, Bautista led FEU to a 76-72 victory while scoring nine of his 21 points in the extra period.
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Bautista's decisive ways didn't stop there as he drilled a three-pointer in the Tamaraws' 65-58 win over the NU Bulldogs on Oct. 16 as he finished with 17 points as FEU rose to 3-6, winning back-to-back games. and three of his last four, good for fifth place in the standings.
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“Sobrang saya po kasi sabi nga ni Royce (Saddlebag) yung mga hard work namin kung paano namin ipush yung isa't isa sa training na ginagawa namin, paunti-unti nang nagbubunga. Sobrang sarap talaga sa sensation na makuha yung panalo,” said Bautista, who joined forces with Alforque in decisive moments to lead the Tamaraws.
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READ: UAAP: Kent Pastrana struggles but still takes UST beyond Ateneo
Cheesy Tacatac of UST Tigresses during a game against Ateneo in the UAAP Season 87 women's basketball tournament.–UAAP PHOTO
Meanwhile, Tacatac used his outside sharpshooting prowess to help lead UST to an 84-57 victory over UP on October 13 and a 77-73 victory over Ateneo on October 19.
Those two wins gave UST an overall record of 8-1, the second-best in the tournament.
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Tacatac, who edged out teammate Bridgette Santos, NU's Cielo Pagdulagan, FEU's EJ Lopez and Adamson's Elaine Etang for the weekly citation, shot an impressive 9 of 15 or 60 percent from beyond the arc in games before mentioned combined where he shot 17.5 points in just 20.5 minutes per game.
The fifth-year guard shot 5 of 7 from downtown and 7 of 13 from deep against UP to finish with 23 markers with two steals to boot, and then went 4 of 8 from three-point range to score 12 against Ateneo plus two rebounds and two assists for good measure.
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