MOST observers thought Saint Jude Catholic School would give Hope Christian High School stiff competition in what was billed as a preview of the finals of the 18th Metropolitan Amateur Sports Association high school basketball tournament during their encounter last Sunday.
The game between unblemished teams was even held at the Judenites’ home floor in an 11th hour change in venue and three of their prominent veteran players were making their first appearance in the six-week roundball conclave.
Still, the aforementioned developments turned out to be of no consequence.
The SJCS faithful in the sparse crowd went home disappointed as Hope Christian bamboozled its way to an easy 69-56 decision over the Judenites.
The final score actually did not indicate how lopsided the match was.
The Warriors, who raised their record to 4-0 in the double-round elimination phase of the six-school tournament that also features Saint Stephen’s High School, Philippine Academy of Sakya, Philadelphia High School and host Philippine Cultural College, took control early and never were threatened at any time.
Notwithstanding the debut of veteran Judenites Maynard Yap, Matthew Ang and Lance Chan, Hope Christian raced to a 33-6 lead after the first 10 minutes as nine Warriors punched their name in the scoreboard, led by Carlo Carino’s two triples and eight points. With the offensive avalanche that hit them early, the troops of coach Luis Nolasco were unable to mount any meaningful comeback thereafter. The merciless Warriors even stretched their advantage to 37 points, 49-12, at the half.
John Sacundo and Mac Jacob each had six markers in the second period while the stocky Ang tallied eight of Saint Jude’s 12 first-half scores.
Ang knocked in a pair of triples and 14-year-old Mallechi Lim tallied six points in the third canto as the Judenites sought any form of intervention from the Patron Saint of the Hopeless to no avail.
Hope Christian, behind six points by Ron Heras, was still up by 30, 64-34, entering the payoff quarter.
Lim connected on three triples and Yap collected eight markers in the final period but the closest that the Judenites came within was 13, 69-56, with two minutes left.
Sacundo and Jacob each finished with 12 points for Hope Christian HS, which also got nine scores from Heras and eight each from Carino and Carmelo Noblefrancia.
Ang, who along with Yap and Chan sat out the team’s first three assignments, was the Judenites’ high point man with 16. Lim and Yap were the other double-digit scorers for the Mendiola-based school with 15 and 14, respectively.
The weekend games in the MASA high school competitions are as follows:
Saturday (Nov. 14) at the Saint Stephen’s High School gym – Saint Jude Catholic School (3-1) vs. Philippine Academy of Sakya (1-3), Philippine Cultural College (1-3) vs. Hope Christian High School (4-0) and Saint Stephen’s High School (3-1) vs. Philadelphia High School (0-4);
Sunday (Nov. 15) at Philadelphia High School gym – HCHS vs. SJCS, PAS vs. SSHS and PHS vs. PCC.
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