What many expected to be a close encounter between two unbeaten teams turned out to be a horrendous blowout as two-time defending champion Xavier School stamped its class and brutally demolished St. Jude Catholic School, 91-55, Wednesday night (January 27) in a Juniors Division matchup in the 40th Freego Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association tournament held at the Chiang Kai Shek gym in Tondo, Manila.

It was also billed as a showdown between the tournament’s top offensive team (Xavier School) and best defensive squad (St. Jude Catholic School).

While the Golden Stallions kept their part of the bargain, the Judenites faltered badly and played matador-like defense throughout.

An open secret, it’s actually Xavier’s defense that fuels its offense, which produced 109.8 points an outing through the team’s first five assignments.

With the convincing victory over St. Jude, the Golden Stallions completed the seven-team, single round-robin elimination phase with an unblemished 6-0 record. They gained a quarterfinal bye and are automatically seeded into the semifinals on February 10 armed with a twice-to-beat advantage against the winner of the quarterfinal series between the No. 4 seed and the No. 5 seed.

Despite the humiliating shellacking at the hands of Xavier that saw its win-loss record slip to 4-2, St. Jude has already clinched the No. 2 spot. The Judenites also secured a quarterfinal bye and an automatic semifinal ticket against the winner of the quarterfinal series between the No. 3 seed and the No. 6 vs. No. 7 wildcard victor.

Trailing in the opening minutes (2-0, 5-2 and 7-6) in the early minutes, Xavier zoomed ahead for good following a 13-0 blast from 8-all, getting five players to contribute during the period (three-point play from Jeron Teng, two free throws from Bryan Tan and a field goal each from Harold Ng, Jose Anton Manuel and Paolo Cabero).

The first 10-minute period ended 21-9 in Xavier’s favor. St. Jude was mesmerized by the Golden Stallions’ dizzying trapping defense and fast-tempo offense throughout and came no closer than seven points (22-15, early in the second quarter) for the rest of the game.

Coach Budds Reyes’ troops were up, 39-26, halftime and kept the pressure by opening the third period with a 19-5 run (58-31) built around a pair of baskets by Kevin Lim and couple of threes from Harold Ng.

By the time the third quarter ended (59-38), the Judenites had already given up the fight as their coach Goldwin Monteverde opted to sit out his entire starting five in the fourth quarter.

St. Jude, which was surrendering only 45.5 points a game to the opposition going into the game against Xavier, did not get much production from its Triple Ls – Jason Ligad, Kim Lo and Derrence Lam.

All night long, the reed-thin Ligad, the team’s scoring leader, was kept in check by the suffocating defense of Manuel and Donal Ong. He shot 1-for-5 from the field and finished with a measly three points, none in the second half.

Multi-dimensional Kim Lo, the tournament’s No. 1 rebounder, left the floor midway through the third quarter after an inadvertent elbow from teammate Richard Sy bloodied his left eye. He wound up with only 10 points and 10 boards.

Lam totaled just five points and had a game-high seven turnovers.

Xavier, on the other hand, got outstanding performances from several places, including 19 points, six rebounds and three steals from Manuel; 17 points, five boards and seven assists from Teng; and 10 points fromNg.

Caesar Wongchuking contributed nine markers, including six from the three-point area, and Kevin Lim and Bryan Tan added seven apiece.

The Golden Stallions also scored 34 points off the Judenites’ 35 turnovers.

Overall, the Xavier Juniors own a 16-game winning streak in the Tiong Lian competitions over three seasons.

Now, all they need are three more victories (one in the semis and two in the finals) in February to snare their third straight championship.