Hoopster: Tionglian is back
by Henry Liao ’72, YEHEY! Contributors
1/10/2008 9:53:32 AM
High school basketball action among the topnotch Chinese-Filipino schools in the Metro Manila area comes off the wraps on Jan. 12, Saturday (12 noon), at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum with the 32nd renewal of the Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association tournament.
Three games in the juniors division are scheduled for inaugural day.
This year’s host Saint Jude Catholic School takes on Grace Christian High School, St. Stephen’s High School clashes with Uno High School and defending champion Chiang Kai Shek goes up against Xavier School in an early meeting between two teams that are expected to figure in the finals for a third consecutive year.
Hope Christian High School, which dropped all its seven assignments last season as the tournament host, is the only team that drew an opening-day bye among the seven participating schools.
The MMTLBA is comparable to the NCAA juniors in terms of popularity although the latter remains ahead in the talent department.
The Chinese-Filipino league actually has a pair of divisions – the juniors (age 15 and above but no more than 19 by Jan. 1, 2008) and the aspirants (age 14 and under).
Xavier School is the defending champion in the Aspirants division. The Golden Stallions are bidding to win an unprecedented sixth consecutive title.
Chiang Kai Shek College, on the other hand, is the reigning titlist in the Juniors division.
The Blue Dragons, who are seeking their first back-to-back championship finish since accomplishing the feat in 1994 and 1995, own 14 Tiong Lian junior championships overall, the most in league history.
CKSC coach Sunny Co, the former Philippine Basketball Association player, is looking for his eighth crown as well.
And chances are Co will turn in the trick as he still has the Big Fella, Justin Chua, in his lineup.
A product of the Basketball Association of the Philippines-sponsored “Tuklas Taas” project, the burly 6-5 Chua hopes to bring home another championship ring before taking his act to the collegiate ranks in July when he turns 19.
The left-handed Bacolod City teenager appears headed to the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles in the UAAP.
As a junior last year, Chua earned tournament MVP honors after powering Chiang Kai Shek to a perfect 9-0 record, including a 2-0 sweep of the Xavier School Golden Stallions in the best-of-three finals.
How dominant was Chua during the championship series against Xavier? He was a triple-double threat in both games.
In Game 1, Chua collected 29 points, 23 rebounds and eight blocked shots as CKSC overcame a 23-point halftime deficit to register an 83-76 win. In the series clincher, he had 15 scores, 17 boards and 10 blocks in a 68-61 decision.
The rest of the 2007 standings: St. Stephen’s High School (third), Grace Christian High School (fourth), Saint Jude Catholic School (fifth), Uno High School (sixth) and Hope Christian High School (seventh).
Thanks to the presence of big man Justin Chua, Chiang Kai Shek College is favored to annex its second straight championship in the Juniors Division of the upcoming 32nd Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association competitions held at the Uno High School gym in Manila.
Although they lost regulars John Go, Brylle Sy, Terrence Lam, John Capati and Rainiel Mendoza from last year’s championship unit, the CKSC Blue Dragons still have a competitive roster that includes the heavily-scouted 6-5 Chua, who is being wooed by the Ateneo Blue Eagles to join their UAAP team in July this year; hardworking Steven Chua and heady guards Ralph Lim (son of former Mapua Tech Cardinals coach Horacio Lim) and Karl Villaflor.
And to prove their worth, coach Sunny Co’s charges handily topped the Filipino Chinese Amateur Athletic Federation (FCAAF) tournament last October, routing Philippine Cultural High School, 99-64, in the finals for their third straight title.
In the titular contest against Philippine Cultural High School, which subsequently won the rival Metropolitan Amateur Sports Association (MASA) league for the second straight season over Saint Jude Catholic School, the burly Chua was a dominant force with 34 points, 18 rebounds and seven blocked shots for CKSC.
Far more impressive in the Blue Dragons’ triumph was their average winning margin of 43 points per game in the annual tourney.
Xavier School, the 2006 titlist (over Chiang Kai Shek) and 2007 runner-up in the Tiong Lian competitions, are primed to make it to the finals once again despite the loss of regulars Justinn Sze and Alejandro Torres to graduation and up-and-coming center Paulo Pe to the Ateneo Blue Eaglets.
The Golden Stallions have retained the services of big man Gabriel Banal, son of former Mapua Tech Cardinal and ex-UAAP and PBA coach Joel Banal, and even solidified their frontline with the addition of Jeric Allen Teng, son of former PBA frontliner Alvin Teng.
Both incidentally are candidates for the RP team that will compete in the SEABA Youth Championships to be held in Malaysia in May.
Coached by ex-University of the Philippines bench boss Lito Vergara for the second straight season, Xavier comes into this year’s MMTLBA competitions well prepared, having won a pair of tournaments along the way.
The Gold and Blue repeated as champions in the tradition-steeped Philippine Athletic Youth Association (PAYA) tournament last October, whipping the tough Benedictine International School, 81-72, in the finals.
Teng knocked in a game-high 30 points for Xavier while guard Robin Tan and Banal chipped in 17 and 12, respectively.
The Quezon City-based Benedictine International School was led by 5-9 playmaker Clark Bautista, who must have learned a trick or two from LA Laker Kobe Bryant as one of the members of the Nike Elite Camp that took part in an exclusive two-hour drill conducted by the NBA star at the Philippine Sports Arena last September.
Other PAYA member schools are Ateneo, Aquinas, Claret (the 2005 champion), Colegio de San Agustin, La Salle Greenhills and Lourdes QC.
Xavier also topped the San Juan Inter-High School tournament last November, beating San Juan National High School in the finals. Teng earned tournament MVP honors in the process.
