CHIANG Kai Shek College closed out its elimination campaign with a bang, stunning erstwhile undefeated Al Cars-Hope Christian High School, 91-78, in the Smart Sports Fil-Chinese Athletic Association Inc. on Monday at the Tanduay gym in Quiapo, Manila.
The team backed by Edison Yang’s New Fortune Mansion Seafoods Restaurant needed a third-quarter explosion to create enough separation and prevail on the way to finishing with a 3-4 card – good for fifth in the 30-39 division of the eight-school tournament.
The Blue Dragons slowly pulled away from a slim 40-38 lead as Joshua Tan scattered three triples while Karl Villaflor added one to take a commanding 68-55 advantage.
After making half of his 8 3-point attempts, Villaflor led all scorers with 29 points, while Tan also had four triples on the way to a 26-point effort.
Despite the loss, Hope still advanced to the semis outright as it ended up tied with Xavier School-McDavid x Windsor for first to second places with similar 6-1. Hope also took the No. 1 seed due to the winner-over-the-other rule.
St. Stephen’s, sponsored by Cellboy big boss Alvin Chu Teng, finished No. 3 and will face No. 6 Grace Christian College in the quarters while CKSC takes on No. 4 St. Jude Catholic School. The knockout quarterfinal round is set on April 10.
The Alusign 3M Stickers-backed GCC grabbed the last quarterfinal ticket after pulling off a 72-69 win over Uno HS-Golden Peters – thanks to Lawrence Chua (18), Brenson Go (16) and former Letran player Patrick Ang (14).
GCC, Xavier top elims
Meantime, GCC-Hyundai Home Appliances joined Xavier in the semis of the 50-and-above division after edging past Philippine Cultural College-Transit X, 62-60. Both Xavier and GCC posted similar 6-1 records.
In the 50-and-above quarters set April 8, No. 3 Hope battles No. 6 St. Jude while No. 4 St. Stephen’s slugs it out with St. Jude.
The event also has the backing of Genius Hardware, Ultraforce Tires, Cellboy, PGFlex Linoleum, Boysen, Lamtex Pipes, Jiang Nan, Hangry Pares, Powerhouse Tools, L.F. Fireworks, BYD Valenzuela, BAIC, Jetour, Oedo, 1118 Autospa, and TCL.
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