Lancers, Warriors complete Final Four

Rookie Joseph Quiñahan was a source of inside strength yesterday as Cebu champion University of Visayas turned back a hard fighting Las Piñas College, 72-69, yesterday to join three other Manila teams in the semifinals of the Champions’ League 2002.

Cheered frantically by their Cebuano supporters at the Makati Coliseum and at the UV campus back home where a big screen was installed, Quiñahan sizzled in the final period, erupting for 10 of his 18 points to power the Lancers to the next round where the University of the East Warriors are waiting in the wings.

Unleashing a balance offensive, the Warriors, third placers to eventual champion Ateneo and La Salle in the 2002 UAAP, walloped the San Sebastian Stags, the reigning NCAA champions, for an emphatic 81-65 win.

"I’m proud of the boys for hanging tough in this game although it’s basically a team effort. I’d like to give some of the credit to my rookie Joseph Quiñahan," said UV coach Boy Cabahug, backed up by fellow ex-PBA cager Al Solis at the bench.

After torching the Huskies, the CUSA champs who eliminated the St. Benilde Blazers, from the perimeter in the first two quarters, the Lancers, back-to-back titlists in the Cebu collegiate league, went dry from outside in the third quarter.

Las Piñas, which suspended its high school classes just to get its students to watch the game, capitalized on UV’s sudden slump as it turned a 30-34 deficit at the break to a 48-47 lead going into the last 10 minutes of the match.

And then Quiñahan bulldozed his way in the shaded area to deliver the crushing blows, zapped their foe’s hopes of stealing the win and sent the Huskies and their droves of fans home.

After missing his team’s elimination game against University of San Jose-Recoletos where it won, Ronald Tubid made up for lost time against San Sebastian with 16 markers, half of which coming in a pivotal fourth quarter run, and eight rebounds.

The other semis pairing pits University of Santo Tomas versus Far Eastern University, which stunned fancied Ateneo and Uni-Games titlist St. Francis of Assisi, respectively.