Archers, Lions bag collegiate citations

MANILA, Philippines - Key members from the championship teams of De La Salle and San Beda will be given due recognition on Sunday (Dec. 15) when the UAAP-NCAA Press Corps and Smart hold the 2013 Collegiate Basketball Awards at Saisaki-Kamayan EDSA.

Players from both squads who are going to receive special awards are the Green Archers' Arnold Van Opstal and Jason Perkins, and the Red Lions' Art dela Cruz, Baser Amer and Rome dela Rosa.

Van Opstal and Dela Cruz were chosen for the Pivotal Player honors after stellar performances in the finals of their respective leagues while Perkins and Amer are set to receive the Impact Player awards for their integral roles during the title run of their teams.

Dela Rosa, on the other hand, was selected for the Super Senior plum alongside University of Santo Tomas' Jeric Teng and Far Eastern University's RR Garcia for playing a vital part in San Beda's fourth straight NCAA championship on his final year.

Teng overcame injuries in his last collegiate season to lead the Tigers to the UAAP finals for the second straight year while Garcia returned for his fifth and final campaign and guided the Tamaraws back to the Final Four.

Juno Sauler and Boyet Fernandez head the list of awardees in the annual staging of the event supported by Smart Sports, Accel 3XV1, Gatorade, Meralco, Talk 'N Text, Filoil Flying V, UAAP Season 76 host Adamson, NCAA Season 89 host College of St. Benilde and the Philippine Sportswriters Association.

Scribes from national broadsheets, tabloids and websites covering the collegiate basketball beat picked Sauler and Fernandez for the Coach of the Year award for steering La Salle and San Beda, respectively, to the title.

The Collegiate Mythical Five will be composed of La Salle's Jeron Teng, San Beda's Ola Adeogun, FEU's Terrence Romeo, Letran's Raymond Almazan and National University's Bobby Ray Parks.