NBA All-Star Game 2011

This video of the All-Star game

is an update of what really happened during

the All-Star game. Just wanted to share. Enjoy.

All Star Weekend

The NBA 2011 All- Star weekend's regular side shows had its own drama and highlights. The 3 point shoot out crowned a new king in James Jones from the Miami Heat edging NBA Superstars Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. On the other hand, the NBA Slam Dunk competition had its own drama and was not lacking in creativity. All four competitors, seven foot Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma Thunder, another seven Footer JaVale McGee of the Washington Wizards, DeMar Darozan of the Toronto Raptors and eventual champion Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers had their own highlights and drama in competing in one of the most exciting dunking competitions ever.

STI College Santa Rosa poised to sweep the league

The STI College Global City basketball team succeeded in limiting defending champion STI College Santa Rosa to 71 points because the last time the two teams met the Santa Rosa based cagers scored at will and ended up scoring 89 points. This time the defense of the home squad was adequate. As mentioned, if their defense was adequate their offense was very anemic as the Santa Rosa defense worked overtime to limit the Global CIty squad to 53 points. The win was the eighth straight by the defending champions as they prepare to sweep the league.

Rookie Guards Nikko Naraga and Ruzzel Parala led the charge for the laguna based cagers as Naraga was all business on the fastbreak while Parala rained threes. MVP candidates Aries Santos and Richmond Reyes added 12 and 10 points respectively as the defending champs are back in the finals with this win. With the loss, STI College Global City is one game behind STI College Balagtas who the defending champs will meet next week.

STI College Balagtas on the other hand leaned on the mutt and jeff tandem of Cruz and Pascualas the duo scored 18 and 14 points respectively to beat a hard fighting STI College Quezon Avenue team 68 - 62. Junior Olympian point guard Charlon Untalan came off the bench to score 22 points to pace the Quezon Ave squad which fought toe to toe against their Bulacan based foes but unfortunately lost steam in the end game. An oh so familiar story for the Quezon Avenue dribblers for the third straight year. The loss eliminated them from finals play.

STI COLLEGE SANTA ROSA (71)

Naraga 17, Parala 15, Santos 12, Reyes 10, Ferrer 7, Maunahan 6, Sayao 3, Arzola 2, Garamiton 1, Jaspe 0, Mamaed 0

STI COLLEGE GLOBAL CITY (53)

W. Sultan 15, Avila 13, Becares 4, Acuna 4, Manalad 4, Lontoc 3, Reyes 3, Magsalos 3, Sarmiento 3, Lagrimas 2, Jimenez 0, de Belen 0

Quarterscores: 23 - 10, 45 - 22, 59 - 36, 71 - 53

SECOND GAME

STI COLLEGE BALAGTAS (68)

Cruz 18, Pascual 14, dela Cruz 10, Ablaza 6, Crisostomo 6, J. Leguin 5, Baliclic 4, Macapagal 3, Hernandez 2, Q. Leguin 0

STI COLLEGE QUEZON AVE. (62)

Untalan 22, Daclitan 15, Magistrado 10, Jamero 7, Zabala 6, Ubeda 2, Cervantes 0, Aguilar 0, Magno 0

Quartesecores: 18 - 15, 37 - 31, 53 - 46, 68 - 62

16th NYC in CDO Highlights

The stage is set for the

16th NYC in CDO

The STI Performing Arts

interpreted the Invocation Hymn

Colbert Rabaya,

School Administrator

of the host school

is shown here

welcoming the delegates

STI College CDO dancers

in the opening number

THE REAL AGA MUHLACH

DANCE NUMBER

An excited Robby Manubay

A Reserved Dennis Evangelista

An energetic Jet Nera

When you invite them, they come

As usual Queenie Padilla

mesmerized the crowd

Yours truly and Queenie

Global City Cagers stay in second

Wynald Sultan of Global City scores

Forward Chris Becares scored three points in the dying seconds as the STI College Global City basketball team squeaked past last year's second placers, STI College Quezon Avenue 69 - 67. The win put the Global City dribblers in solo second place ahead of STI College Balagtas which opened the first quarter with a 31 - 3 lead and cruised by the rest of the way to repulse a hard fighting STI College Las Pinas team 113-60. League leader STI College Sta. Rosa likewise won by a big margin as they murdered an undermanned STI College Taft team 122 - 55.

Jhay Ar Avila shows his strength

STI College Global City was comfortably ahead in the third period as they erected a 49 - 33 lead on the strength of their superb defense and flawless offense. Point Guards Mark Acuna and former Junior Olympian Arvin Sarmiento presided over the run and gun offense of the Global City squad that put them ahead by as much as fourteen points. After three quarters it looked like the Global City cagers were on their way to duplicate their first round win against the STI College Quezon Avenue team.

Charlon Untalan orchestrates

STI College Quezon Avenue does not have the strong line up that they had in previous years. Gone are former Olympians Macky Macabasco and former STI Showdown MVP William Vasallo who were both instrumental to their second place finish last year. Tasked to lead the Quezon Avenue squad is forward Ervin Magistrado who fueled the amazing Quezon avenue comeback. The Quezon ave full court press worked wonders as Magistrado together with junior Olympian Charlon Untalan, Paolo Zabala and Eldrick Jamero unleashed a paralyzing full court press that made the Taguig based dribblers commit mistakes. The Quezon ave team crawled back to 64 -65 with less than a minute left until Becares scored on free throw and put back to seal the win for the host team.

Eldrick Jamero floats in mid-air

After six days of the 11th STI Basketball Showdown, defending champion STI College Sta. Rosa is still on top sporting an immaculate 6 - 0 slate and are poised to make it to the finals. The Global City dribblers are in second place with a 5 win one loss slate with their only loss coming at the hands of the defending champs. STI College Balagtas is in third place with two wins and two losses while last year's runner up STI College Quezon Avenue is in fourth with a 2 win four loss slate. STI College Las Pinas has one win and five losses while STI College Taft is the only "non-defeated" team in the league.

Pascual of Balagtas is fouled

by Sta. maria of Las Pinas

Scores

STI COLLEGE GLOBAL CITY (69)

Avila 19 , W. Sultan 14, Lontoc 7, Becares 7, Acuña 6, de Belen 6, Lagrimas 3, Sarmiento 2, Jimenez 2, Reyes 2, Magsalos 1, F. Sultan 0, Manalad 0, Elumba 0, Baquiran 0,

STI COLLEGE QUEZON AVENUE (67)

Magistrado 19, Zabala 17, Ragundiaz 12, Jamero 7, Cervantes 5, Untalan 5, Daclitaan 2, Araos 0, Zapanza 0, Magno 0

HVD

To all the gurls I've loved before

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

CLICK HERE

11th STI Basketball Showdown: Santa Rosa leads the pack

Aries Santos helps out Arvin Sarmiento

When the smoke was cleared there was only one unbeaten team standing and that was defending champion STI College Santa Rosa which used almost all its players for a 40 minute non-stop pressure defense to stop previously unbeaten STI College Global City 89 - 69. The Laguna based cagers jumped on the gun right away as they raced to a 6 – 0 lead and never looked back as the home crowd of the Global City cagers were rarely a factor in the game. The wildly cheering students from STI College Global City eventually fizzled in the wake of the 20 point cushion that never went below 13 points which eventually dismayed the home town crowd.

Aries Santos scores

High flying guard Aries Santos led the Santa Rosa attack as he scattered 23 points together while Richmond Reyes underscore his strength inside the paint by adding 20 points. A third high scorer in Ruzzel Parala spelled the doom for the Global City dribblers as Parala scored from beyond the arc to show the balanced attack of the laguna based defending champs. Although the troika ended up topscoring, it was still a team effort for the champs. Gone were the big guns of the defending champs but their team game and relentless defense showed that they are a better team this year and are poised to repeat as champs.

Wynald Sultan on the drive

The unforgiving pressure defense of the Santa Rosa cagers worked wonders as point guards Mark Acuña and former Junior Olympian Arvin Sarmiento was obviously bothered by the sticky defense of the Santa Rosa players that they found it hard to set up their scorers. Forwards Wynald Sultan and Jay-Ar Avila were the only consistent scorers for the Global City team as the rest of the team contributed in spurts. The Global City team were forced to numerous turnovers which the Santa Rosa cagers capitalized on as they converted most of their points through fastbreak plays.

The Air up there

STI College Santa Rosa now sports an immaculate 4 – 0 and will face another contender STI College Balagtas for its last game. The Global City squad thus goes down to 3 – 1 and is expected to breeze through its next opponent STI College Taft 0 - 4 . STI College Quezon Avenue is 1 – 3 and will face STI College Las Pinas which also tots a similar record. The tournament is a double round format with the top two teams advancing to the finals.

The Scores

STI College Sta. Rosa (89)

Santos 23, Reyes 20, Parala 16, Ferrer 10, Arzola 9, Naraga 7, Maunahan 2, Jaspe 0, Capacete 0, Sayao 0, Galamiton 0, Marqueses 0

STI College Global City (69)

Sultan 17, Sarmiento 15, Avila 14, Becares 8, Magsalos 4, Reyes 3, Jimenez 2, Elumba 0, Lagrimas 0,

A timely reunion

What is wrong with the picture 2011

Me and my Ateneo friends rarely see each other. Let me rephrase that, I rarely see my Ateneo friends lately and that lately has been the past eight years when my work in STI has become the reason why I rarely go out with friends. One of our closest friends Ur Rodrigo just recently visited the country and that alone was a great reason to get together. I just missed the many laughs that me and my Ateneo friends shared. These are priceless moments that I hope will be more often. Even when we parted ways, there were still many stories that were waiting to be told...I hope get-togethers like this become more often.

16th STI NYC at SMX Convention Center

2010 STI Singing Idol Jenielyn Libre of STI College Caloocan

sings the Invocation Hymn "Jesus take the wheel"

The STI Network just keeps on getting bigger and bigger. In 2005, the STI annual convention which was known as the STI IT convention back then was reverted to two days since the number of attendees have dwindled from 15,000 for three days to 11,000 for two days. Back then STI was experiencing problems with regards to its enrollment. Five years later we are back to three days and a record breaking 19,600 confirmed attendees.

The newly formed NYC Dancers open the show

The NYC has now become a yearly spectacle that STI students await and the SMX Convention Center has become the new home of the STI National Youth Convention. As I mentioned close to twenty thousand students were confirmed to the yearly Metro Manila event. These students were from thirty eight STI schools with some coming from as far as Ilagan in Isabela, Tarlac and Dagupan City.

Yours truly with my dance number

STI College Fairview, the school with the biggest population confirmed two thousand five hundred STIers to the event. This confirmation gave the Quezon City based school the bragging rights to have only three other schools join them in the last session of the convention. Most of the students present during the convention are excited to get not only the latest in technology and other things that will help their confidence, but their excitement comes with the latest jokes, music and guest artist in the event.

Microsoft's Robby Manubay asks an STI student

The technology partner for this year is Microsoft. Speaker is Microsoft Philippines lead for Live @ Edu Robby Manubay. Robby's presentation centered on the different products of Microsoft that is very helpful to education. Microsoft is putting a lot of free products online as long as STIers will register with their new live @ edu email. In his presentation was a demo of XBOX Kinek which drew great claps from the STIers.

Jet Nera gives out a prize

Jet G. Nera is was a former President of the Philippine Society for Training and Development. He was recommended by last year's speaker Pido Aguilar and he did not disappoint STI fans. He took over the nation building topic which was widely received by the STI studes specially during the part when he was explaining the "Have a bias for action" part of his presentation.

Dennis Evangelista was well applauded

One of the most awaited presentations is the one of Dennis Evangelista. Ever the entertainer and the one who gives the most heart wrenching presentation, Dennis has become a favorite of STIers who have watched him for the past few years. Dennis started out with a dance number that pumped out the audience and then eventually caught the eye of STIers with his true to life examples.

The Gorgeous Queenie Padilla laughing at the handsome one

To cap the Metro Manila NYC, we have invited the beautiful Queenie Padilla to wow the crowd. Queenie's beauty and talent was the perfect icing on the cake of the very successful Metro Manila run of the NYC. Queenie also got the winning ticket stubs for the raffle winners of the Samsung Laptop computer and other raffle items. Til the next convention, I hope that the success will continue.