STI College Balagtas bounces back with a rout

Two of Kevin Miranda's 22 points

STI College Balagtas once again went back to its winning ways by employing their punishing full court pressure defense to turn back STI College Ortigas-Cainta at the resumption of the STI National Basketball tournament National Finals to the tune of a 121 – 59 rout.  Six players led by forward Kevin Miranda scored in double figures as the balanced scoring of the Bulacan based team rotated well and was always fresh whenever needed to give their opponents another 40 minutes of hell shellacking.

Juan Alcantara collars the rebound

The Balagtas team actually started slowly and was looking at a 9 – 15 deficit after ORCA’s Allen Abes scored on a basket with 3:45 left in the first quarter. This woke up the Balagtas team as they countered with a 15 – 5 run to end the first quarter with a 24 – 20 lead.  When the second quarter started, the Balagtas defense went full throttle as their pressure defense made the ORCA team turn the ball around that resulted into quick points for the Bulacan team.  To show how tenacious the Balagtas defenders are, their defense allowed only 6 points for the ORCA team in the second quarter and they started it by scoring 21 unanswered points. It was only in the 3:25 mark when Kenneth Afuang sank a three pointer to put the Rizal based Orca Team on the board for the second quarter.

Angelito Oraye goes for a lay-up

The second half had the same storyline as the STI College Balagtas cagers were relentless on defense and unforgiving on the offensive end. The Bulakeños allowed only 13 points and steamrolled to 31 points through their hard work and team work. By the fourth quarter, the second unit of Coach Carlo Tan were as unrelenting as their first stringers with John Mendoza and Angelito Oraye this time taking turns to torch the Orca team. Miranda ended up with 22 points, Angelito Oraye had a double – double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.  Hervin Deniega and Eivan Pedida paced the Ortigas-Cainta team by scoring 13 and 11 points respectively.

The mid-air battle

The Box Scores

STI COLLEGE BALAGTAS (121)

Miranda 22, Oraye 17, Mendoza 16, Rafols 15, San Pedro 12, Guhiting 12, Reyes 9, Estanislao 9,  Joson 6, Macapagal 3,

STI COLLEGE ORTIGAS-CAINTA (59)

Deniega 13, Pedida 11, Locsin 10, Abes 8, Alcantara 7, Afuang 4, Palanca 4, Francisco 2, Alvarado 0

Quarter scores:

 24 – 20, 58 – 26, 91 – 39, 121 – 59