{"id":46731,"date":"2026-04-27T12:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/?p=46731"},"modified":"2026-04-27T12:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:08:30","slug":"the-story-of-sagrados-first-lai-basketball-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/the-story-of-sagrados-first-lai-basketball-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Sagrado\u2019s First LAI Basketball Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The LAI yearbook recounts the moment the Dolphins experienced in 1985\u201386.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
USC looks to write a new chapter in the history of LAI basketball. (Universidad del Sagrado Coraz\u00f3n Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

By LAI Press<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday, April 24, 2026 (Mayag\u00fcez, Puerto Rico) <\/strong>\u2013 The basketball championship of the Interuniversity Athletic League (LAI, per its Spanish acronym) Sports Festival begins tomorrow, Saturday, at the Mayag\u00fcez Recreation and Sports Palace with the first game of a best-of-three series. The team currently on the rise is the Universidad del Sagrado Coraz\u00f3n Dolphins (USC), who are seeking their second championship in history, their first since the 1985\u201386 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facing them will be an equally competitive squad: the Ta\u00ednos of Ana G. M\u00e9ndez University, led by Leo Arill. The institution already holds one runner-up finish (2024) since the unification of the private education system in the 2018\u20132019 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, we recall the details of Sagrado\u2019s championship 40 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sagrado, under the leadership of Jorge Rosario, claimed the men\u2019s basketball championship for the first time since joining the Interuniversity Athletic League in the 1979\u201380 academic year. The tournament was held under two leagues: Beit\u00eda \u2013 University of Puerto Rico (UPR), University of Turabo (UT), Humacao University College (CUH), Universidad del Sagrado Coraz\u00f3n (USC), and Bayam\u00f3n Technological University College (CUTB); and Mangual \u2013 Mayag\u00fcez University Campus (RUM), Interamerican University (UIA), Catholic University of Puerto Rico (UCPR), Cayey University College, and Arecibo Technological University College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final series was televised on Channel 6 of Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9 Sosa of USC was the individual scoring champion, totaling 241 points in 7 games for an average of 34.42 points per game. Orlando Torres of UT set records by making 6 three-point shots in a game against CUH on March 5, 1986, and scoring 20 three-pointers during the season. The latter record had been held by Jos\u00e9 Agosto of CUTB with 15, set in 1984\u201385.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USC championship team consisted of: Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz, Jos\u00e9 \u201cEl Galgo\u201d Sosa, Pedro Nadal, Donald Bouth, Jorgito Rivera, Jorge Rosario (head coach), George Maymi (trainer), Alan Fuentes, Nabel Mart\u00ednez, Juan Corrada, Frankie Bracero, Ram\u00f3n Ram\u00edrez, Jos\u00e9 Luis \u201cJoe\u201d Burgos (athletic director), and Orlando O\u2019Neill (dean of students).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standings in the regular season, semifinals, and finals were as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beit\u00eda<\/strong><\/td>Mangual<\/strong><\/td>Semifinal<\/strong><\/td>Final<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
USC 7-1<\/td>RUM 7-1<\/td>USC 2-0 <\/td>USC 2-1, Campeones<\/td><\/tr>
CUTB 7-1<\/td>UIA 6-2<\/td>CUTB 2-0<\/td>CUTB 1-2, Subcampeones<\/td><\/tr>
UPR 3-5<\/td>CUTA 4-4<\/td>UIA 0-2<\/td> <\/td><\/tr>
UT 2-6<\/td>CUC 1-6<\/td>RUM 0-2<\/td> <\/td><\/tr>
CUH 1-7<\/td>UCPR 1-6<\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tickets on sale at Ticketera for both series<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final series begins this Saturday, April 25, at 6:00 p.m. with the women\u2019s final between the champion Vaqueras of the University of Puerto Rico at Bayam\u00f3n and the runner-up Juanas of UPR Mayag\u00fcez. The men\u2019s game will follow at 8:00 p.m. Both will be broadcast on the Interuniversity Athletic League\u2019s digital platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second game will take place on Monday, April 27, and, if necessary, a third game will be played on Tuesday, April 28, at the Mayag\u00fcez Recreation and Sports Palace. The women will play at 6:00 p.m., followed by the men at 8:00 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bronze medal game will be held on Sunday, April 26, starting at 4:00 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all interested, tickets are available on the Ticketera platform and at the venue starting at 4:00 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For updates on the Interuniversity Athletic League, visit https:\/\/laipr.org<\/a> and its Facebook and Instagram social media accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

97 years developing leaders with passion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interuniversity Athletic League was founded in 1929 and currently includes 17 institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of these, 10 belong to the public education system, represented by the University of Puerto Rico campuses in Carolina, R\u00edo Piedras, Bayam\u00f3n, Arecibo, Aguadilla, Mayag\u00fcez, Ponce, Humacao, Utuado, and Cayey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Completing the group are private institutions: Universidad del Sagrado Coraz\u00f3n, Interamerican University, Central University of Bayam\u00f3n, Caribbean University, Pontifical Catholic University, the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, and Ana G. M\u00e9ndez University. The total number of student-athletes across all institutions is around 4,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The LAI yearbook recounts the moment the Dolphins experienced in 1985\u201386. By LAI Press Friday, April 24, 2026 (Mayag\u00fcez, Puerto Rico) \u2013 The basketball championship of the Interuniversity Athletic League (LAI, per its Spanish acronym) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":46729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3696,3674],"tags":[5410,5115,5398,5409,3731,5408,5110],"class_list":["post-46731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-en","category-sports","tag-basketball-championship","tag-lai-2","tag-lai-2026","tag-lai-sports-festival","tag-sagrado-en","tag-sagrado-sports","tag-universidad-del-sagrado-corazon-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46733,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46731\/revisions\/46733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}