STI halts UM's romp; St. Clare triumphs

MANILA, Philippines - STI Colleges rode on the heroics of Ervin Silverie to eke out a thrilling 103-102 overtime win over erstwhile unbeaten University of Manila at the start of the second round of the elimination in the 11th NAASCU junior division basketball championship at the Makati Coliseum.

Silverie nailed a long, desperation three-point shot as time expired to lift the Junior Olympians to victory over the highl favored Hawkletts.

Silverie’s heroics came after Yves Maverick Nicholas split his free throws to give UM a two-point lead, 102-100, with 15 seconds left.

Jim Lontok topscored with 28 points for the Hubert Delos Santos-mentored Junior Olympians, followed by Arjay Napenas with 20, Silverie with 16, and John Roy Parinas and Fernando Ngolong with 11 points each.

STI improved to 4-5.

Ryanosuke Oka fired 22 points, Rodolfo Marticio added 21 points and John Leyner Santos contributed 20 points for the Hawklets.

Equally impressive were Our Lady of Fatima University, which defeated AMA Computer University, 72-63, and Mark Herrera’s St. Clare College-Caloocan, which outplayed Centro Escolar University, 88-72.

Bernabe Teodoro and Jerome Juanico scored 29 points between them for the Baby Phoenix of former RP Youth mainstay-turned-coach Ralph Emerson Rivera.

The Baby Saints leaned on the duo of Joy De Mesa and Norman Mercado to beat the Baby Scorpions for their sixth win in nine outings.

De Mesa finished with a game-high 30 points while Mercado added 20 points for the Caloocan City-based squad, which is being handled by Benjie Diswe and assistant coach Edwin Ancheta in the absence of Herrera.

Commissioner is Igmidio “Boy” Cahanding while tournament director is BJ Diswe.