Taken from a post at the AAXS website..
Xavier guns for TIONG LIAN Juniors crown
February 18th, 2009By: Henry Liao, YEHEY! Contributors
18 February 2009, 9:35 AM
Powerhouse Xavier School goes for the jugular Friday night (Feb. 20) in Game 2 of the best-of-three Juniors Division finals in the 39th Metro Manila Basketball Association high school tournament at the Uno Gym in Tondo, Manila.
Unblemished with an 8-0 record, the Golden Stallions grabbed the championship series opener against upset-conscious St. Jude Catholic School Tuesday night (Feb. 17) with a smashing 116-74 triumph.
Xavier School is bidding to capture its second consecutive crown and third title in four years. Overall, coach Joselito Vergara’s troops are gunning for the eighth championship in their Tong Lian history.
With a 4-6 win-loss mark in the tournament, St. Jude seeks to win on Friday and extend the finals to a third game on Monday (Feb. 23) but its chances are slim.
St. Jude, which reached the finals for the first time ever, is hard-pressed to find an antidote to Xavier’s dizzying trapping defense that resulted in 37 turnovers in Game 1. The Gold and Blue collected 33 points off those miscues.
The Judenites must not allow itself to play into Xavier’s much-vaunted running game. There’s little chance they can keep in pace with the Stallions, let alone outrun them for 40 minutes. Playing to a crawl – a slowdown game – may just work. Milk the 24-second shot clock to the fullest and try to keep the game score low and close until the fourth quarter for a chance at victory.
How to contain the offensive production of two-time Tiong Lian scoring king Jeric Teng, who’s averaging 40.4 ppg in the tournament so far, is a major problem as much as limiting the production of his teammates is.
In the series opener, Teng hoisted just four field goal attempts and made five points in the first quarter, which St. Jude took by a point, 22-21.
However, Jeric’s teammates stepped up in the second quarter. Xavier grabbed a 56-41 lead at halftime as Jeric’s younger brother Jeron Teng (13), Ian Umali (11) and Jose Anton “Jett” Manuel (7) backed up Jeric’s 15 points with a combined 31.
The Stallions were ahead by double digits throughout the second half. They outscored the Judenites, 38-19, in the third quarter and entered the payoff period with an insurmountable 94-60 advantage. Xavier secured its biggest lead of 43 points on three occasions, 112-69, 114-71 and 116-73.
Despite some leech-like defense against him in the early goings, the 6-1 Jeric Teng still finished with 31 points (on 10-20 FG, 7-8 FT shooting, four three-pointers) along with six rebounds and three assists. Also scoring in twin digits for Xavier were Umali, 17; Jeron Teng, 17 (along with 10 boards); and Manuel, 16 (along with seven assists). Pesky guard Bryan Tan marked his 16th birthday with eight markers (including 6-for-6 from the foul line). Twelve players tallied at least two points for the Stallions.
St. Jude’s star frontliner, Kim Lo, who was averaging 19.7 points and 21.0 rebounds in three previous playoff games, was plagued by foul trouble and held to 16 points (only four in the second half) and nine rebounds. Three-point bomber Derrence Lam knocked in 15 points but nine of them came from the charity stripes (9-for-11).
Martin Go contributed 10 points and Perry Lee added eight for the losers. Long-tom artist Jason Ligad was limited to six markers and like Lam, he failed to make a three-pointer.
History repeats itself.
In Xavier School’s 118-73 shellacking of St. Jude Catholic School during an elimination-round contest last Jan. 30, the Judenites were ahead, 18-14, after the first quarter. In the title series opener, St. Jude was up by a point, 22-21, after the first 10 minutes.
In the Jan. 30 game against St. Jude, Jeric Teng completed a four-point play (a three-pointer plus a free throw following a foul) in the second quarter for Xavier. In Game 1 of the finals, Teng also registered another four-point play (27-25 to 31-25, Xavier ahead) in the second quarter.
Only Teng has had a completed four-point play in the tournament so far. And the son of former PBA Robocop Alvin Teng owns a pair.
No comments:
Post a Comment