Chiang Kai Shek repulses Hope’s late rally for Seaoil NBTC win

MANILA, Philippines – Chiang Kai Shek College reasserted their mastery over Tiong Lian rival Hope Christian High School with a 77-71 victory to open the 2013-14 Seaoil National Basketball Training Center championship at the Ynares Center in Pasig last Thursday.

The CKSC Blue Dragons, who now own a three-match winning streak over its Manila-based foe, drew plenty of firepower from junior shooting guard John Gallego, who top-scored with 25 points. Back-up point guard Fran Yu played the game of his life by dropping 14 points, many of them from daredevil drives to the basket.

Meds Salim, named Most Valuable Player of the recently concluded Seaoil Metro Manila Basketball League that CKSC won over HCHS, scattered 17 points before fouling out with the match still in doubt.

It was Hope Christian that started out well scoring the game’s first eight points with center John Apacible accounting for all of them while holding the Blue Dragons scoreless. CKSC coach Goldwyn Monteverde called for time and instructed his team to toughen up their man-to-man defense.

That paid dividends as the Blue Dragons quickly overhauled the deficit. After Hope Christian’s Jollo Go drilled a 3-pointer to give his side a 19-17 lead, Salim quickly countered with a coast-to-coast that triggered an 8-0 run that gave CKSC a 25-19 lead at the 6:21 mark of the second period.

The Blue Dragons held the lead for much of the game as they repeatedly beat back the rallies of Hope Christian with stifling defense and fluid ball movement.

Towards the end of the third period, Hope Christian came back from a 10-point deficit to tie the match for only the fourth time after a layup by Kurt Trangia to make it 49-all at the end of 30 minutes of play.

But any momentum was lost between the last two periods as the Blue Dragons blanked HPHS for the next six minutes and 23 seconds to once more take another 10-point lead, 59-49.

With the game seemingly out of reach, Hope Christian made one last push coming close 68-63 after a Kenneth Sumalacay under goal stab with 2:15 left. But back-to-back turnovers by Nunez and Go clearly hurt Hope Christian’s cause. The Blue Dragons held on for the win.

Hope Christian was paced by Go and Apacible who scored 17 and 16 points, respectively.

In other matches on opening day, National University survived a late rally by Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu when Hubert Cani drilled a 3-pointer off a broken play with two seconds left on his team’s shot clock. Cani’s shot gave the Bullpups a 76-72 lead with a minute left in the game and the current UAAP Juniors champions held on for an 80-76 win.

The format calls for teams from each group in both divisions to play a single round elimination. The top two teams advance to the crossover quarterfinals in an A versus B and C versus D affair. The four winners then meet in another crossover fashion in the semifinals to decide the finalists for both divisions.

The finals of the Seaoil NBTC is the culmination of the official grassroots program of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and is backed by the MVP Sports Foundation, Meralco, Smart, NLEX, Maynilad, Philex, Philippine Star and Molten.