Xavier Bags 7th Straight TL Aspirants Title
by Henry Liao for gameface.ph
The dynastic rule continues.
Wednesday night (Feb. 18), powerhouse Xavier School captured its seventh straight Aspirants Division championship in the 39th Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association tournament held at the Uno Gym, registering a convincing 74-65 decision over Chiang Kai Shek College in the deciding Game 3 of their best-of-three titular showdown.
Xavier grabbed the series opener, 82-76, but Chiang Kai Shek College bounced back to take Game Two, 76-70.
In the fast-paced finale, the Golden Stallions and Blue Dragons exchanged baskets in the early goings of the first quarter, resulting in several lead changes.
Hotshot Kyles Lao struck for a basket to give XS a 15-14 advantage that it never surrendered the rest of the way. The Gold and Blue subsequently raced to a 23-15 lead as Lao and Juan Susmerano each had five points in a 10-0 blast.
Xavier was ahead 25-17 after the first quarter, 37-28 at halftime and 55-42 at the end of the third quarter.
Coach John Sy’s charges led by as much as 15 points, 60-45, in the payoff period. The closest CKSC got was nine, 64-55, but another 6-0 run by Xavier pushed its lead back to 15, 70-55, time down to less than two minutes.
The 5-10 Lao finished with 26 points and five rebounds for the Golden Stallions, who registered a 7-2 record in the six-school competitions for players age 14 and under.
Three other Xaverians scored in double figures – Susmerano, 13; Jarell Lim, 13; and burly center John So, 12 (along with 10 rebounds and six blocks).
Chiang Kai Shek College, which connected on seven three-pointers in the first half but none in the second half, was led by John Nieles and Carlo Young with 27 markers apiece. The missing link was Karlo Yap. Yap, who was averaging 16.1 points going into Game 3, was held to a single point (which he got with 4.5 minutes remaining).
It was the second consecutive year that CKSC lost to Xavier in the finals. The Dragons also wound up with a 7-2 record this year.
Lao averaged a tournament-best 25.9 points in nine games with Xavier. He thus followed in the footsteps of Jeron Teng, who was the TL Aspirants scoring champ a year ago with a 34.1-point clip while leading Xavier to a perfect 8-0 mark.
