Milo best regional finals SHS-Ateneo teams start strong

Iloilo City, Philippines  – The Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) delegation opened up its campaign in the Visayas Regional Finals of the Milo-backed BEST SBP Passerelle Twin Tournament with big wins at the University of San Agustin Gym.

SHS-AdC’s Passerelle team crushed St. John’s Institute of Bacolod, 107-57, while its younger brothers in the Small Basketeers Philippines (SBP) division cruised past Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion College (CPC) of Roxas, 69-28.

The Passerelle squad started out cold, taking the first quarter, 29-22, but it was a different story for the rest of the way.

The second quarter set of Rebreb Diputado, Reggie Abbu, Jair Igna, Jarek Mercado and Julius Cadavis went into high gear giving the Magis Eagles a 58-37 lead at halftime.

This was increased even further by the third quarter set of Adrian Muller, RG Araw-araw, Patrick Go, Bro Catan and Popoy Navarro who stormed to a 78-51 lead at the end of three periods. It was cruise control the rest of the way.

Abbu and Diputado led a balanced attack with 14 points each while Cadavis and Muller added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

It was a more impressive win for the SBP team as it started out with a 23-0 lead after one quarter and never looked back from there. It was 43-3 at halftime and 65-8 after three periods. Christian de la Torre led the team with 10 points while Jed Colonia and Kyle Cabarrubias had eight points each.

In the other games that kicked off the tournament, Ateneo de Iloilo (ADI) defeated CPC Roxas, 83-51, in the Passerelle division. Pre-tourney SBP title-favorite University of St. La Salle (USLS) defeated ADI, 57-29, in the other SBP game.

The SHS-AdC Passerelle squad next faces CPC Roxas to earn at least a tie for slot in the championship game. The SBP Magis Eagles were to face ADI in their next game. (THE FREEMAN)