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.
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.
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.
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,
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