SHS-Ateneo sweeps Milo BEST titles

Iloilo City, Philippines  — After sweeping Cebu, the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) has also swept the Visayas in the Milo-backed BEST SBP Passerelle Twin Tournaments. For the first time in school history, the Magis Eagles won the championships of both the Small Basketeers Philippines (SBP) and Passerelle divisions at the tournament’s Visayas Regional Finals.

The Magis Eagles dug deep to nip the University of St. La Salle (USLS) of Bacolod, 63-61, in overtime to win the SBP division title. Their elder counterparts overcame a shaky start to overcome St. John’s Institute (SJI) of Bacolod, 89-58, in the Passerelle division championship game.

The SBP championship game was one for the books. It was a nip and tuck cardiac game from start to finish. SHS-AdC took the first quarter, 12-11, but USLS led, 25-24 at halftime.

SHS-AdC regained the lead at 43-40 at the end of the third period. It was a battle of will and heart in the fourth period and overtime that saw nine lead changes as both teams refused to budge.

USLS tied the game at 45-all, but SHS-AdC would regain a three point lead twice, the last at 53-50 with 1:17 left in the game.

USLS replied with six unanswered points to take a 56-53 lead, 37.5 seconds remaining. Gerard Mendoza cut the lead to 55-56 with 33 seconds left then Christian de la Torre gave the Magis Eagles a 57-56 lead with 9 seconds left.

But everything screeched to halt when de la Torre picked up his fifth foul, sending Adrian Caram to the line with a chance to win the game for USLS with 0.7 seconds left.

Caram made the first but missed the second, sending the game into overtime at 57-all. After Jose Antiporda gave USLS a 59-58 lead in overtime, Mendoza made it 60-59 courtesy of an assist from Angelo Pioquinto with 1:38 left, then Nino Araw-araw added another basket off a Jed Colonia pass for a 62-59 lead with nine seconds left.

Antiporda sank two free throws to cut the lead to 62-61 with 6.2 seconds left then USLS fouled repeatedly to get into penalty situation, sending Joseph Mayol to the line with 2.7 seconds left. Mayol made the first to make it 63-61.

USLS couldn’t get off a shot as time expired. Colonia led the champions with 15 points. Araw-araw added 10. Antiporda led USLS with 19 points.

The Passerelle championship game was close at the start when SJI stunned the defending champs, taking the first period, 20-16.

SHS-AdC worked back to take a 33-31 lead at the half behind Adrian Muller’s 15 second period points. The third quarter saw Rebreb Diputado take over along with Reggie Abbu and Jair Igna in giving the momentum back to the Magis Eagles.

Diputado scored 10 points in the quarter including a triple in a 10-2 blast that gave SHS-AdC a 50-40 lead. Igna and Abbu took over to stretch the lead to 59-47 at the end of the third period. The fourth quarter was all SHS-AdC with Muller, Diputado, Julius Cadavis and RG Araw-araw outscoring the tiring SJI side. Muller had a game-high 22 points while Diputado and Cadavis had 12 points each to pace the Magis Eagles.

The Passerelle regional title is a third straight Visayas championship for SHS-AdC, while the SBP team regained the title it last won in 2007 with a team that featured today’s core of the Passerelle team.

Both squads will now represent the Visayas in the national finals which will be held in Cebu on Nov. 20-21 at the USC Main Gym. They will face the regional champions of Metro Manila, Luzon and Mindanao. (THE FREEMAN)