MANILA, Philippines - The newly formed University of the East Kid Warriors of coach Mark Herrera crushed Southridge, 71-16, in a show of power in the quarterfinal round of the Metro School Sports Association recently.
The Kid Warriors blanked Southridge, 35-0, in the first half en route to the lopsided victory that sent them to the semifinals of the eight-team tournament among elementary students.
Joshua Santos topscored anew with 15 points while Ricci Rivero added 10 in the bloodbath that affirmed the young team’s potentials for forthcoming tournaments like the UAAP junior basketball tournament.
The UE Kid Warriors were formed under a program launched by Herrera only this year as a farm team of the junior and senior UE Red Warriors.
“This basketball program, which I established for the elementary and high school students, will hopefully help the UE basketball team prepare for the more challenging leagues in the future,” said Herrera, who is also four-time winning coach of the Jr Talk N Text-QC team in the Batang PBA annual summer tournament.
Other scorers were Earl Lagaras and Karl Bautista with nine each, Justine Arellano and Paolo Malones with five each and RJ Venturina and Wilson Lagaras with two each.
Herrrera is assisted by Edwin Ancheta, Benjie Diswe and Jeus Albano. The elementary basketball program is supported by UE president Ester Garcia, EVP Carmelita Mateo and acting PE director Rodrigo Roque. It is sponsored by 3K Scent Perfume owned by Herrera.