STI College Santa Rosa dethrone defending champs

June Aliparo scores a three

Revenge is a dish best served cold.  This famous quote was on the back of the minds of last year’s STI National Basketball Tournament runner-up STI College Santa Rosa as they finally slayed the ghost of last year’s finals melt down as they ousted the only team that beat them – STI College Global City and they beat them bigtime 83 - 52.  The win put the Laguna based dribblers on top of Group A and will face the second seeded team in Group B – STI College Malolos in the cross-over semifinals.

Carl Manzano shoots a fadeaway jumper

STI College Global City opened the game by scoring seven straight points with first five points coming from point guard Raymond Veluz who scored on a driver and a three-pointer. STI College Santa Rosa eventually caught fire as June Aliparo scored on two three-pointers as the team from Laguna countered with a 10 – 0 run to take the lead 10 – 7. The quarter ended with STI College Santa Rosa on top by a solitary point 14 – 13. 

Jansenn Pangilinan drives to the basket

In the second quarter, STI College Santa Rosa clamped down on Jeanssen Pangilinan and made it hard for the Global City squad to score in the paint while checking the defending champ’s shooters.  After doing their part on defense the Santa Rosa offense was at full throttle which the STI College Global City team had a hard time stopping. Raul Guerrero led the way for the Laguna dribblers as he scattered eight of their team’s 21 points to give them the much distance going to the second half.

Kent Fabic jumps high for this jumper

Going into the fourth quarter, STI College Global City was facing another double digit deficit for the third straight day. Unlike in the previous two games wherein their team came to life and forged a win and a tie, in this game STI College Santa Rosa made sure that there will be no comebacks for the defending champion.  The whole Santa Rosa team put their defense into overdrive by making the defending champs miss 15 shots, make them shoot a poor 12% from the field (2 of 17) and translate that good defense into good offense by scoring six fastbreak points and six points off turnovers – this signaled the end of the rein of the Taguig based defending champions.

John Adato scores off an undergoal stab

The scores:

STI COLLEGE SANTA ROSA (83)

Aliparo 17, Ursua 12, Adato 10, Guerrero 10, Lizen 8, Hercia Jer. 7, Fabic 6, Romualdo 6, Hercia Jes. 5, Romero 2, Ibbara 0

STI COLLEGE GLOBAL CITY (52)

Pangilinan 20, Veluz 15, Sabordo 7, Pagulayan 5, Manzano 3, Baldoza 2, Lumelay 0,

Quarter scores:

14 – 13, 35 – 23,     64 - 43, 80 - 52