PCYAA Season 5 | Bandera

PCYAA Season 5

Henry Liao |November 09,2017
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PCYAA Season 5

Henry Liao - November 09, 2017 - 12:05 AM

IT will be a long nine-day sabbatical for the students in the Metro Manila area starting Saturday, November 11, due to the country’s hosting of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) Summit.

Even as classes (November 11-19, including twin Saturdays and Sundays) are suspended during the period, a drawn-out basketball-related work it will be for this battle-scarred Hoopster – and also a celebration of youth hooping in the Chinese-Filipino community – as Season 5 of the Philippine Ching Yuen Athletic Association (PCYAA) unwraps on Saturday with simultaneous basketball competitions in the Developmental Division (for boys aged 12 and below and born in or before 2005) and Aspirants Division (for boys aged 14 and below and born in or before 2003) at the traditional-steeped Uno High School gym in Tondo, Manila.

A total of 46 games (of 72 elims total) from both divisions are to be played during the nine-day stretch – seven games each on opening day (Saturday), November 12 (Sunday), November 13 (Monday), November 15 (Wednesday) and November 17 (Friday); six on November 18 (Saturday), and five on November 19 (Friday).

There are nine participating schools in both PCYAA divisions. These are host Jubilee Christian Academy, Makati Gospel Church-New Life Christian Academy, Pace Academy, Saint Jude Catholic School, Uno High School, Philippine Cultural College, Grace Christian College, Saint Peter the Apostle School and newcomer Saint Stephen’s High School.

Both Saint Jude Catholic School and MGC-NLCA are three-time reigning titlists in the PCYAA Developmental and Aspirants divisions, respectively.

Hostilities on opening day starts with a bang as host school JCA tests the mettle of “four-peat” title-seeking MGC-NLCA in an Aspirants encounter at 8:30 a.m. It will be a rematch of last year’s semifinals where the young New Lifers made short work of the Jubileeans.

Taguig City-based MGC-NLCA, which owns a 19-game, three-season winning streak going into the JCA contest, is in a rebuilding mode this season with the loss of their Big Three – Ike Jordan Lim, the Aspi leading scorer for the past two seasons; Mcneil Jason Si, who notched a triple-double against Grace Christian College in Game Two of MGC-NLCA’s 2-0 finals sweep a year ago; and Linerwin-franc Magpayo, a perennial double-double performer in points and rebounds – to the Juniors ranks following the expiration of their Aspi eligibility.

Coach James Sia will be hard-pressed to replace Lim (22.8 ppg), Si (16.1 ppg) and Magpayo (12.9 ppg), who combined for 51.8 points in MGC-NLCA’s nine-game sweep for the second year in a row in 2016-17, where only seven schools took part.

The trio has been winners in the last four seasons – having been a part of the New Lifers’ Development Division champion in 2013-14 (at the time for players aged 11 and under) and their current “three-peating” Aspirants run.

Notwithstanding the massive departure of Lim, Si and Magpayo, MGC-NLCA still hopes to be competitive with holdovers Dale Patrick Chua, Pierce Steven Dino, Marcus Jacob Cordova and Ethan Solis and the elevation of some yearlings from the Developmental ranks.

Jubilee Christian Academy itself lost several key Aspi players from its fourth-place team a year ago. Out are Miko Johann Lim (team-best 18.4 ppg a year ago), Roland Vincent Roldan (10.5 ppg), Julian Aldrin Evangelista (6.5 ppg) and Marc Ivenson Kho – now all full-pledged members of the school’s Juniors squad.

All is not lost for the Quezon City-based Jubileeans, though, as they can count on three-point artist Akio Yu, the top returnee who normed 10.6 scores last season.

Grace Christian College, the silver medalist a year ago, is one of the favorites to rule the Aspi festivities this season. It may have lost mainstays Marcus Lu (team-high 17.9 ppg), Matthew Llanes, Michael Claver, Tyrone Kua and Pierce Sanhi to the Juniors ranks but the Graceans can still rely on the services of cat-quick point guard Ren Cobie Tolentino, who averaged a second team-best 15.9 scores last campaign, long-ranger bomber Joshua Peter Chan (7.6 ppg) and energetic Jesse Virgilio Garcia, who has been elevated from last season’s fourth-place Developmental unit.

Another championship contender is Pace Academy with the return of veterans Anton Evangelista (10.1 ppg), Hagen Hawson (9.8 ppg), Airick Jaden Sy (8.6 ppg) and Jashper Fernando (7.9 ppg) and the addition of playmaker de luxe Kleivz Fong and possibly ex-Philippine Cultural College Seagull Art Johnson Tong.

Saint Jude Catholic School, which ranked third a year ago, is a serious title threat as well despite the departure of Andrew Choa, Kiefe Chu, Josiah Filipino and Martin Ang to graduation. Back for the Judenites are veterans Laurence Sengia, Liam Pua and Cyrille Lumbang and with the addition of several players from last season’s back-to-back-to-back champion Developmental squad, such as pint-sized but big-hearted Kobe Chong, Jaezen Ngo, Kendric dela Cruz and Keann Lusong, they, too, could give the favorites a run for their money.

Also expected to make some noises are Philippine Cultural College, Uno High School, Saint Peter the Apostle School (which took a leave last season) and debuting Saint Stephen’s High School.

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Other opening-day games on November 11 feature Philippine Cultural College vs. Uno High School (Developmental Division) at 10:00 a.m.; Grace Christian College vs. first-year member Saint Stephen’s High School (Aspirants Division) at 11:15 a.m.; PCC vs. UHS (AD) at 12:45 p.m.; GCC vs. SSHS (DD) at 2:15 p.m.; Pace Academy vs. Saint Jude Catholic School (DD) at 3:45 p.m.; and JCA vs. MGC-NLCA (DD) at 5:00 p.m.

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