CKSC Blasts SJCS
by Henry Liao for philippinebasketball.ph (01/23/2012)

JUNIORS DIVISION Day 5, Uno HS Gym
Jan. 24, 2012

Game Results:
Chiang Kai Shek College 75 ? St. Jude Catholic School 55
St. Stephen?s High School 72 ? Grace Christian College 61

Team Standings:
Hope Christian High School (3-0)
Xavier School (3-1)
Chiang Kai Shek College (2-1)
St. Jude Catholic School (1-2)
Uno High School (1-2)
St. Stephen?s High School (1-2)
Grace Christian College (0-3)

Games Schedule: Jan. 27 (Fri) ? Grace Christian College vs. Hope Christian High School (5:30 p.m.) and Chiang Kai Shek College vs. Uno High School (7 p.m.); and Jan. 28 (Sat) ? St. Stephen?s High School vs. St. Jude Catholic School (5 p.m.) and High Christian High School vs. Chiang Kai Shek College (6:30 p.m.)

CHIANG KAI SHEK COLLEGE 75 ? ST. JUDE CATHOLIC SCHOOL 55
Notes: In his first coaching appearance against his former team for the past six seasons, Chiang Kai Shek College mentor Goldwin Monteverde steered the Blue Dragons to a 75-55 rout of St. Jude Catholic School ?
The Judenites lived by the three in the early goings, with SJCS top gun Jason Ligad knocking in 11 points (including two three-pointers to start the game) as his team led by two points at the end of the first quarter, 14-12. His teammate Joel Chang hit his second and third treys of the opening half as SJCS increased its lead to five, 27-22, after CKSC had taken the upperhand, 20-15, in starting the second quarter with an 8-1 run behind Kimlee Bayquin, Joshua Tan and unheralded center John Lee ?
Five straight points by CKSC ? a three by Tan and a twinner by Bayquin ? deadlocked the count at 27-all at halftime ?
John Kevin Baytan opened the second half with a three-point play to give Monteverde?s charges a 30-27 lead that they never surrendered thereafter. CKSC actually tallied 12 consecutive points (from 22-27 to 34-27) bridging the second and third quarters to go up by 34-27, again on a Baytan basket ?
SJCS strongman Richard Sy struck to trim the deficit to five, 34-29, then answered a Baytan fielder with a pair of free throws, 36-31. The Judenites came no closer than five after that ?
Burly Lee completed a three-point play following a putback as CKSC grabbed its first double-digit advantage, 46-36, time down to 1:57 in the third period ?
Following a three-pointer by playmaker John Nieles that stretched CKSC?s lead to 51-38, Chang completed a four-point play ? the first by any player this season ? after he was fouled on a three-point conversion by Nieles, 51-42, with 45.6 seconds remaining in the third period, which ended at 54-42 in the Blue Dragons? favor ?
In the second half, SJCS died by the three-point shot, continuously hoisting threes to turn around the tide to no avail ? CKSC was ahead by at least a dozen points in the final quarter and took the first of its two 20-point leads, 64-44, on an inside stab by Lee with 7:25 left ?
Tan finalized the score with a jumper, 75-55 ?
Chiang Kai Shek College got 19 points (on an 8-for-16 clip), 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals from Bayquin in 34 minutes; 17 points and six boards from Tan; 17 points and 14 boards from Baytan and 10 markers (on 4-5 FGA and 2-3 FT shooting) and four boards from seldom-used Lee. CKSC won the battle of the boards, 64-48 ?
St. Jude Catholic School was led by Ligad, who made 27 points on 7-for-30 shooting from the field (including 3-of-20 from beyond the three-point arc) and 10-for-10 from the foul lines. Ligad also grabbed a team-best 12 rebounds ?
Chang got his 14 points but hit just 4 of 17 overall field attempts ? including 4-for-15 from three-point territory ? and 2-for-3 from the charity stripes ?
Sy contributed nine markers and 11 reebies for the Judenites, who dropped their second straight game following a season-opening victory ?
Rookie SJCS head coach Cholo Villanueva?s troops had more attempts from the three-point area, 41 (made seven), than from the two-point area, 36 (made nine), and had an overall clip of .208 (16-for-77).

ST. STEPHEN?S HIGH SCHOOL 72 ? GRACE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 61
Notes: St. Stephen?s High School broke into the win column after three games with a 72-61 decision over host Grace Christian College, which dropped to 0-3 despite the inaugural appearance of new head mentor Lito Vergara (also the GCC Aspirants bench boss) ?
GCC started the game with a lot of energy, going up, 11-0, before settling for a 19-11 advantage after the first 10 minutes ?
GCC opened the second quarter with an 8-0 blast for a 27-11 advantage but then allowed St. Stephen?s HS to put together 15 unanswered points behind the hot-shooting Pierre Chan (six), Jon Ngcha (five), Ralph Tan (two) and Evan Ong (two) to slice its deficit to just one, 27-26 ?
Cholo Claver made a pair of free throws to give GCC a three-point edge, 29-26, at halftime ?
Chan connected on a three to equalize the score, 31-all, at the 8:19 mark of the third quarter. Following a baseline jumper by Lanz Tan that regained the lead for GCC, 33-31, Chan made another trey to push SSHS ahead, 34-33 ?
Following a 36-36 tie, reed-thin Nikki Co broke through with three three-pointers as the Stephenians grabbed a 47-42 advantage. GCC center Rodney Gonzales scored from under and the game was tied for the last time at 47-all ?
Chan retaliated for a twinner and SSHS was ahead for good even as the third quarter ended at 49-48 in its favor ?
Fourteen points by Chan, including four threes, gave SSHS a 63-54 advantage ?
An eighth and final three-pointer by Chan, with 2 minutes and 18 ticks left, pushed SSHS? advantage to 69-56 ?
GCC self-destructed once again from the foul line. In the final 4:12, the team shot a horrendous 5-for-18 from the charity stripes, including nine consecutive misses at one stretch. Gonzales went 0-for-4 and Jared Sy was 2-for-8 as GCC could not get any closer than eight points. Overall, GCC was 22-for-48 (.458) from the free-throw line (SSHS was 10-for-17 from the same area). This negated GCC?s rebounding edge of 71-54 ?
Chan had 31 points, going 11-for-33 from the field overall (including 8-for-25 from three-point land), and pulled down 10 rebounds in 32 minutes for SSHS, which also got nine points, four boards and three assists from Co; seven points apiece from Ngcha and Kevin Ng and six points and 14 rebounds from center Adrian Te ?
For GCC, Gonzales had team highs of 13 points, 16 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots but shot just 3-for-12 from the foul line. Tan (3-for-6 3FGA) and Cholo Claver (4-for-8 FTA) added 11 and 10 markers, respectively. Jan Aaron Choa had nine points and eight boards and bespectacled Kevin Lao had eight points and 13 reebies. Sy shot an anemic 5-for-14 from the charity stripes and only had five markers.