The Finals
Relentless - that in a nutshell is how the STI College Santa Rosa's basketball team will be remembered in the 14th STI Basketball Showdown. They actually don't care whether the team they are playing are good or not because whatever team they are facing they will run them over with their unforgiving defense and fierce offense. That was the case in game 1 of the 14th Season of the STI Basketball showdown as the five-peat seeking Laguna based team ran over the STI College Global City team 92- 53.
Lizen on the defense
Jeremy Bungar opened the scoring for the Global City squad but was immediately shutdown by the Santa Rosa guards as Norbert Peña, Robert Salazar, Kenneth Batiquin,Mike Sabino and Raul Guerrero took turns in scoring all 16 points of the first quarter that saw the Laguna based cagers run some fastbreaks to suddenly give them a whopping 15 - 2 lead. Global City would close the quarter with a 7 - 1 run anchored on Jim Lontoc's 5 points as the quarter closed with them down just 7 points 16 - 9.
Jim Lontoc led Global City with 17 pts
The second quarter saw the Santa Rosa cagers unleash the full brunt of their offense as eight players scored with no one scoring more than 5 points. The Global City version of the Splash Brothers - Jim Lontoc and Mike Sampurna carried the fight for the Global City team but unfortunately it was not enough. STI College Santa Rosa hounded and disrupted the STI College Global City offense relentlessly and then ran the fastbreak and scored on three pointers in a show of balanced scoring. The first half ended with the four time defending champions on top by 15, 39 - 24.
Kenneth Batiquin scored 8 4th qtr. points
The second half was just as bad for the Global City team as the Santa Rosa cagers hit the throttle as the whole team shifted to overdrive to outscore the Taguig-based cagers 53 - 29 in the next 20 minutes of action. The Santa Rosa defense was so fine tuned that it produced 17 steals with Mark Caraan leading the way with 5 steals and Robert Salazar chipping in 3. The champs capitalized on these mistakes by scoring mostly on fastbreak opportunities and extending the lead further until all was lost for the Global City team. If the Santa Rosa team had an easier time scoring, the Global City squad had a hard time putting the ball in the basket as they missed lay-ups, jump shots and even free throws thus a convincing win.
Norbert Peña led Santa Rosa with 17 points
This win puts
STI College Santa Rosa one win away from securing their fifth consecutive
title. If they continue their superb relentless defense and unforgiving
offense, the Laguna based four-peat champions will be on their way to rewrite STI basketball history. Game 2 is on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 at the
historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum at 3:00 pm just after the 1:30 pm encounter of
STI College Malolos and STI College Fairview in the battle for third place. So
will it be redemption or repeat. See you on Wednesday.
Bryanth Ursua scores on the drive
The Scores
STI College Santa Rosa (92)
Peña 17, Batiquin 16, Almoro 10, Caraan 9, Sabino 9, Lizen 7, Guerrero 7, Salazar 7, Ursua 4, Fudotan 4, Aliparo 2, Geli 0, Mamaed 0, Romero 0, Maunahan 0
STI College Global City (53)
Lontoc 17, Napeñas 11, Sampurna 8, Pangilinan 5, Bernal 4, Carlos 3, Bungar 2, Gubat 2, Norte 1, Baldoza 0, Abuy 0, Delabajan 0, Natividad 0, Sultan 0,
Quarter scores: 16 - 9, 39 - 24, 62 - 40, 92 -53
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