RIA Nabalan bucked her poor start and bagged the women's title in the UAAP Season 81 Last 1 Standing 1-on-1 Hoop Challenge Friday at Mall of Asia Atrium.
The NU winger clipped Nathalia Prado of Adamson, 8-6 in the championship round as her late two-pointers gave her the cushion en route to the title.
Nabalan drained back-to-back long balls to take an 8-5 lead with one minute and 32 seconds remaining before buckling down on defense to take the tiara.
It was a sweet victory for Nabalan, who dropped her opener to UST's Elondra Rivera, 8-6 earlier in the day.
She took home the P20,000 cash prize for ruling the competition.
The two, though, had to go through gritty challenges in the semifinals before making it to the championship game.
Nabalan clipped Cristine Cortizano of UE, 10-8, while Prado just did enough to hold off Jhazmin Joson of Ateneo, 9-8.
Rivera of UST, Rossini Briana Espinas of La Salle, Princess Soraya Jumuad of FEU, and Noella Cruz of UP were also in the tournament but fell in the preliminaries.
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