THE official opening ceremony of the 6th Philippine Ching Yuen Athletic Association (PCYAA) sports competitions that was graced by inspirational speaker Gabe Norwood of the Philippine national basketball team was held last Saturday before a sizeable crowd at the Filoil Flying V Centre.
The cage festivities in the 18-and-under Boys Juniors Division commenced that day with a quadruple-header.
After two playdates, three schools – defending titlist Saint Jude Catholic School, Philippine Cultural College and Grace Christian College – sit atop the eight-team standings with identical 2-0 records. St. Stephen’s High School is 1-0 after drawing a bye last Sunday.
Saint Jude Catholic School blasted Jubilee Christian Academy, 63-47, in a rematch of last year’s finals, and then crushed Season 6 host MGC New Life Christian Academy, 80-30, for a sweep of the weekend games.
Against the New Lifers, the Green Knights never trailed throughout, coming up with a 28-0 bomb bridging the first and second quarters to put the game out of reach early.
Stocky Mallechi Colby Lim chalked up 18 points and 10 rebounds in less than 19 minutes of service for a double-double. Two other SJCS players scored in double digits – Martin Ang, 16, and Josiah Filipino, 11.
Title contender Philippine Cultural College bamboozled Uno High School, 109-26, in the season opener for both schools before registering a hard-earned 81-76 overtime victory over Pace Academy.
Gerwin Sevilla netted 23 points, eight rebounds and eight steals, Rafael Ckenji Pangilinan also scored 23 and grabbed 12 boards for a double-double, and John Patrick Sy tallied 16 for the Golden Seagulls, who seek to improve on their fifth-place finish a year ago.
Put to waste were the efforts of Dean Ong and Pol Antiporda, who tallied 20 and 19 points, respectively, for the Pacers, last year’s fourth-placers who will go up against Uno High School on Saturday (January 19) in a game between 0-2 teams.
Grace Christian College, which finished dead-last in Season 5 with a pitiful 0-8 record, has gotten off to a good start with victories over MGC NLCA (85-44) and Uno High School (75-63).
Marcus Lu topscored for Grace Christian College with four triples and 30 points in its 12-point win over the Blue Pandas.
St. Stephen’s High School, which captured the 12-Under Developmental and 14-Under Aspirants division championships last December, won its lone assignment so far, a 62-49 plastering of Pace Academy behind 13 markers apiece by Dustin Yu and Micko Tee.
Third-placers a year ago, the Stephenians will clash with Grace Christian College on Tuesday, January 15, at the Uno High School gym.
Each of the eight teams will play seven games in the single-round elimination phase. Breaking away from the format of previous seasons where all eight teams advanced to the next round, only the top six following the elims will qualify for the playoffs.
The No. 7 and No. 8 teams will be out for an early vacation.
The quarterfinal playoffs will feature No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5 with the third and fourth seeds owning a twice-to-beat advantage over their respective opponents.
The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds automatically advance to the semifinals where they will also enjoy a twice-to-beat incentive.
The Finals between the semifinal victors will be a best-of-three affair.
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