GUEST team Chiang Kai Shek College completed a perfect 9-0 season with a hard-earned 57-55 victory over host Saint Jude Catholic School Saturday afternoon at the Philippine Cultural College Gym to annex the high school basketball title in the 17th Metropolitan Amateur Sports Association (MASA) competitions.
Saint Jude Catholic School, which upset 2013 titlist Hope Christian High School during their one-game semifinals, got off to a strong start and held a slim 29-28 lead at halftime. It was to be the last time that the team would be in the driver’s seat as it would play catch-up ball the rest of the way.
Buoyed by the arrival of its bench boss Goldwin Monteverde just before the start of the second half, no thanks to the monstrous traffic in the Divisoria area, Chiang Kai Shek College opened the third period with six unanswered points for a 34-29 advantage.
SJCS came within three, 37-34, with 3:55 left in the third quarter but CKSC scored the final seven points of the period to enjoy a 44-34 advantage behind the heroics of tree-like Jonas Raphael Tibayan.
The Blue Dragons opened the payoff quarter with a Danilo Hernandez basket to go up, 46-34. But a 9-0 run by the Judenites sliced CKSC’s lead to 46-43 with 5.5 minutes remaining.
Behind the impeccable free-throwing shooting of shooter Renzel Yongco, SJCS again cut its deficit to three at 53-50 and 55-52 before a three-point play by his teammate, Daniel Pua, pulled the team within two, 57-55, time down to 13.6 seconds.
SJCS had one last chance to even the count after CKSC’s Dominique Cuevas muffed a pair of free throws at the 10.8-second mark but the Judenites were unable to make a field attempt.
Tibayan paced Chiang Kai Shek College with 22 points, 11 rebounds and two steals.
Yongco was shut out in the game-changing third quarter but got 15 points (including 11-for-13 from the free throw line) in the fourth to finish with a game-high 23 for Saint Jude Catholic School, which registered a 6-3 mark during the seven-week competitions. Yongco, who shot only 3-for-17 from the field but was 17-for-22 from the charity stripes, also plucked down eight rebounds.
Pua collected 12 points, eight boards, three steals and a pair of blocked shots.
In the third-place game, Hope Christian High School pulled off a 56-48 win over Saint Stephen’s High School.
Even with the absence of top scorer Jollo Go, the HCHS Warriors hardly worked a sweat throughout the mismatch.
SSHS scored the game’s final 10 points to make the final score more respectable.
Ryan Miguel Quiambao and John Francis Sacundo collected 15 and 13 points, respectively, to lead HCHS, which wound up with a 7-2 record.
SSHS, which dropped its final two assignments for an overall 4-5 card, was bannered by Franz Yap, who chalked up 24 points and nine boards.
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