UNBLEMISHED no more, Uno High School is. Host St. Jude Catholic School brought down erstwhile unbeaten Uno High School, 63-60, Wednesday night in a spine-tingling triple-overtime classic in the 1st Philippine Ching Yuen Athletic Association high school basketball competitions at the Uno HS Gym in Manila to force a winner-take-all title match today (6:00 p.m.), Dec. 20.
At no time in the epic 55-minute game that was characterized by 13 deadlocks and 17 lead changes did any side enjoy a lead of more than five points.
And both teams were so exhausted by the time the game was completed 2.5 hours later. Injuries also took their toll on both sides. Uno sharpshooter Kyle Christian Tan and big man Vic Jason See hobbled with injuries while St. Jude not only was plagued by an injury to Adrian Lance Billan but also saw big fella Francis Go and hardworking Neill Wong foul out.
The Judenites, who lost twice to the Uneans during the double-round elimination segment, were ahead by five points on four occasions (13-8, 23-18, 25-20 and 27-22) – all in the first half during which they were up, 18-16, after the first quarter (on a Mark Comia triple) and, 27-23, at the half.
From thereon, the difference by either side was no more than four points. Again, it was SJCS who owned the distinction, the first coming early in the third period, 30-26.
The second and last came when King Judenite Renzel Yongco erased Uno’s final lead, 57-55, with a strong drive with 9.7 seconds remaining to force a third OT at 57-all, and Maynard Nielson Yap scored back-to-back baskets at the start of the third extension to give the Mendiola-based school a 61-57 advantage that it never surrendered with 1:58 left.
Uno, which lost for the first time in 11 assignments, came within one point, 60-61, on a Clinton Choa trifecta with 10.1 ticks remaining. After Yongco missed a pair of free throws at the 8.5-second mark, a jumpball was whistled with SJCS winning the toss for another possession.
The Uneans, whose largest lead of three points (50-47) came at the 2:58 mark of the first overtime, were forced to foul and Yongco found himself at the line once more, time down to 6.5 seconds.
This time, he made 2-for-2 for a 63-60 SJCS edge. A wild three-point attempt by Uno with 1.9 seconds left sealed the victory for the Judenites, who dropped a pair of games to the Uneans – 59-51 in the first round and 57-55 in overtime in the second – during the elims.
Yongco topped St. Jude’s scoring charts with 23 points on 6-for-28 field attempts and 10-for-15 from the charity stripes. He also plucked down 10 rebounds and had three steals.
Yap chalked up 10 points, eight of them coming after the first half. Go collected five points and nine boards while Earl See tallied seven markers (more if not for his 1-for-8 effort from the foul line) and Adrian Lance Billan had six points and six rebounds. Neill Wong produced only a point but grabbed a game-best 15 reebies for the Luis Nolasco-mentored squad before fouling out early in the third OT.
Choa scored 24 points (including three three-pointers) for Uno but a hobbling Kyle Christian Tan bled to get his 14 points (including 7-for-12 from the free-throw line). Charles Chong made all of his 10 points after the third quarter and hit a pair of free throws to send the game into the first OT at 47-all.
See also had eight scores and eight reebies for the Uneans. Both teams had their chances for an early victory but were sidetracked by poor free-throw shooting.
Uno went 25-for-41 (including 4-for-10 in the third OT) from the line while St. Jude was 18-for-42 (including 2-for-11 in the final OT) from the same area.
In the third-place game, Grace Christian overcame a deficit of as much as 11 points (26-15 and 29-18) in the first 20 minutes with a strong 23-8 effort in the decisive third period that gave it a 49-42 lead en route to a 72-61 victory over St. Peter the Apostle School.
Pint-sized but pesky Ervin Jacob Uy scored 16 points (14 of them in the second half) and wide-bodied James Oliver Ung registered a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds for GCC, which also got nine points each from Justin Cua and Tristan Hawson (along with 10 boards).
Paul Vincent Aquilino topscored for the Peterians with 19 points. John Jeffrey Ouyang and Marton Aldrich Choa had 11 and 10 markers, respectively for fourth-place SPAS.