Olympians miss last bus to the PCCL

After a second place finish in the 8^th NAASCU compeititon, the STI College Olympians booked a seat in the Wilcard phase of the Philippine College Championships. Together with the Olympians are Lyceum of the Philippines, De OCampo Memorial College and Emilio Aguinaldo College. They were bunched in Group B with Group A being led by University of Santo Tomas, St. Clare College of Caloocan, St. Francis of Assisi College and Las Piñas College. Here are some highlights of the game.

Lyceum Pirates (88) vs. STI College Olympians (86)

The Olympians started the game with a 5-0 run as Ramon Mabayo showed his strength inside the paint as the Pirates countered with a three pointer and showed their shooting prowess. In the 2^nd quarter the Pirates made headway as they unleashed a 7-0 blast that broke a 24-all tie and gave the Pirates a 44-38 lead. The Pirates were in control most of the game until a late surge by the Olympians gave a big scare on Lyceum.

With less than 1:30 to go the Olympians were staring at a 75-85 deficit when Mike Cabangon helped bring back the Olympians as he presided over the suffocating defense of the Olympians that erased the ten point Pirates lead and brought it down to just 2 points 83-85 with 28 seconds left. In the ensuing play, Edwin Difonturom scored on a three pointer to give the Pirates breathing room and an 88-83 lead with only 10 seconds left. The Olympians called a timeout and mapped out another play. William Vasallo sank his only three pointer after that time out that cut the lead to two. After that shot, the Pirates lost the ball as Mike Cabangon stole the leather but did not have enough time to launch a decent shot to give the victory to the Pirates. It was a sorry loss for the Olympians who were affected by the technical error of the PCCL table officials who did not call a crucial twenty four second violation of the Pirates which resulted in a basket. Tough luck for the STI College Olympians.

STORY FROM INBOUNDPASS

STI College Olympians (76) vs. De Ocampo Memorial College (65)

After a slow start with two deadlocks - 8 and 27-all in the 1st Quarter, the Olympians used a late 2nd quarter 9-0 surge to control the game until the final buzzer with a 76-65 victory over De Ocampo Memorial College. De Ocampo Memorial almost caught up with the Olympians, 59-51, with less than 7 minutes left to play in regulation but it was not enough to stop the Olympians from grabbing their first win of the series. Ramon Mabayo for STI with 19-points followed by Arnold Danganan with 15-points and William Vasallo with 13-points. Waldemar Tibay, Narvey Morales and Narcy Cobacha had 14, 13, and 11 respectively for De Ocampo Memorial College.

Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals (90) vs. STI College Olympians (88)

EAC relied on Lovell Yaya (18-points), Argel Mendoza (14-points), and veteran shooting guard Julius Quiambao (14-points) to defeat the Olympians, 90-88. The Generals became the 1st team among the Wildcard contenders to enter the Zonal tournament. Darryl Mendoza top scored for STI with 21-points, followed by Ramon Mabayo with 19-points and Mike Cabangon with 15-points.

The two losses ended the STI careers of Ramon Mabayo, Darryl Mendoza, Mike Cabangon and William Vasallo. Ramon Mabayo played for four years for the Olympians while Cabangon wore the Olympians jersey for three years. Mendoza played two while Vasallo, who played two years for the DLS-STI team also played two years for the Olympians. For the Zonals of the PCCL, Group A has the UST Tigers and St Clare Saints advancing while in Group B its Lyceum and Emilio Aguinaldo College.

It was a very unfortunate three days for the Olympians as lead point Macky Macabasco figured in an accident days before the games while Darryl Mendoza and Nonoy Crisostomo suffered from high fever that had them skip the De Ocampo game with the former only the one playing in the EAC game.

The undermanned Olympians played like Wawrriors as they never went down without a fight .