Chiang Kai Shek College and Uno High School registered hard-earned victories Friday night (Jan. 23) in the Juniors Division of the 39th Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association tournament held at the Uno Gym.

Chiang Kai Shek (2-2) scored an 85-75 decision over winless Hope Christian High School (0-4) to even up its record to 2-2 and stretch its opponent’s losing streak to 22 games.

Leading throughout the contest, the Blue Dragons enjoyed a 43-27 advantage at the half and scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to go ahead 68-51.

In a last-ditch rally, Hope came back with an 11-0 run to slice the deficit to 79-74 with 25.9 seconds left. Paul Aduana knocked in a pair of free throws 3.9 ticks later to ice the game for CKSC, 81-74.

Slippery playmaker Karl Villaflor, who had a sub-par five-point effort against defending champion Xavier School Wednesday night, collected 19 points, nine boards and seven assists to lead the Dragons.

Four other CKSC players scored in double digits – Gregorio Gimado, 18, Arvin Faustino, 14, Alvin Qua, 13, and Aduana, 11.

Rookie guard Janrey Garrido tallied all of his 16 points in the second half to lead Hope Christian. Frontliner James Ko, who played with a bandaged finger in his left hand, and one-time ACCEL three-point shootout champion Aeschylus Tan, who had four three-pointers, got 14 markers apiece. Center Reuel Rabino added 12 for the losing team.

In the main game, Uno High School (3-1) registered a come-from-behind 69-66 decision over St. Stephen’s High School (1-3).

Uno was down by seven points at the half, 35-28, fell behind by as many as 11 (52-41 and 54-43) late in the third quarter and still trailed by seven going into the payoff period.

From a 56-47 deficit, the Uneans scored 13 unanswered points bridging the third and fourth quarters to take a 60-56 lead behind the efforts of Mark Ronald Chua, Vince Revillosa, Isaac Lim and Oliver Rocafor.

A three-point play by St. Stephen’s HS’s Jesus Martinez deadlocked the count at 62-all, time down to 3:16. Uno went up by four, 66-62, on a pair of free throws by Lim and a basket by Revillosa, but St. Stephen’s equalized once more at 66-all on four straight points by Wesley Ang with 36.8 seconds left.

Michael Reyes scored on an undergoal stab to regain the lead for Uno, 68-66, at the 19.6-second mark. He then finalized the count with a free throw, time down to 10.3 seconds.

Joseph Uy, who earlier connected on a three-pointer, later misfired on a potential game-tying trey as the Stephenians fell into a tie with St. Jude Catholic School (1-3) for fifth place in the standings.

Lim and Chua (who fouled out with 4:10 left) shared topscoring honors for Uno with 16 points apiece. Revillosa collected had 11 and Reyes added 10. Raymond Cailles had nine, all in the first 20 minutes.

St. Stephen’s HS got 15 points from Clyde Aparicio, 14 from Sean Teng (three threes), and 10 from Paolo Chan (all in the first half).

Saturday night (Jan. 24), Xavier School (3-0) and Grace Christian College (3-0) faced each other in a battle of unblemished teams while Hope Christian HS sought to end its 22-game losing streak against slumping St. Jude Catholic School.