THE six-year title reign of Angelicum College in the Girls High School Division of the 9th Quezon City Athletic Association (QCAA) basketball competitions is over.
Saint Bridget’s School, which returned to the league after a seven-absence, saved its best for last in upsetting erstwhile unblemished Angelicum College, 84-82, in the Girls High School finals before a sizeable crowd at the Saint Claire School Gym along West Avenue in Quezon City.
Saint Bridget, which had lost to the Lady Roebucks, 86-80, during the elimination phase, trailed by 12 points, 42-30, at the half but opened the third quarter with a fullcourt pressure defense that mesmerized AC while coming up with nine unanswered points to slice its deficit to three, 42-39.
A basket by SB’s bespectacled, heavily-built center Thea Tria with 6:01 remaining in the third canto gave coach Richard Dizon’s belles the first taste of the lead since the opening 10 minutes.
Consecutive fielders by energetic Nicole Aynera gave Saint Bridget a 49-46 advantage. There were nine lead exchanges in the third capped by a pair of free throws by Angelicum’s hardworking point guard Claudine Santos with 6.3 seconds left that gave back the upperhand to the Roebucks, 60-59, entering the payoff period.
Following a 62-all deadlock on a fielder by E. Torrente, SB went on a 6-0 run behind a basket by Mari Ysabel Datu and a pair of Aynera drives to establish a 68-62 edge. Saint Bridget was up by six points a couple more times at 71-65 and 73-67 before AC deadlocked the count at 73-all on three straight fielders by the elongated, ponytailed Santos, time down to 4:12.
A drive and a layup by Aynera gave SB a 77-73 lead with 3:16 left and the team never trailed thereafter.
However, AC made a last-ditch rally to pull even at 81-81 on two charity shots by Santos, who netted 15 of her game-high 38 points in the fourth quarter, with 49 ticks remaining.
Tria broke the tie with split free throws then went 2-for-2 from the foul line at the 0:05 mark following a three-second violation by AC’s Aliah Nadine Millan as Saint Bridget took an 84-81 lead to seal the championship.
Millan halved her freebies with 1.2 seconds to finalize the count.
Aynera topscored for Saint Bridget with 34 points (on 17-for-33 field shooting) and Tria flirted with a triple-double with 28 points (on 10-24 FG and 7-12 FT clips), 17 rebounds and eight assists along with two blocked shots. The lefthanded Tria wound up as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Datu was the only other SB player with a double-double with 13 scores and 11 reebies (including nine off the offensive glass).
Santos, a second-year player at Angelicum College, finished with 38 points (on 15-28 FG and 8-12 FT shooting), nine assists, three rebounds and two steals in a team-tying 38 minutes but her multi-dimensional performance went for naught as the Lady Roebucks surrendered the Girls HS crown after a six-year stranglehold (since 1999).
Milan and S. Cabaccan also scored in double digits for AC with 22 and 10, respectively.
A tired Roebucks squad mentored by Eli Chua utilized just eight women, including three with 38 minutes and five with at least 33, went a frigid 13-of-35 (.371) from the free-throw line (including 2-for-9 by S. Cabaccan, 3-for-7 by Millan and 0-for-4 by Torrente), gave up 22 offensive rebounds to their foes (against AC’s 11) and allowed them to score 14 second-chance points (against none by AC).
More on the QCAA finals in the other four divisions (boys’ elementary 12-and-under, boys’ 14-and-under, boys’ high school developmental and boys’ high school competitive) next time.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Bandera. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.