St. Clare trips UE to remain atop B-League

MANILA, Philippines - St. Clare Colleges routed University of the East, 3-0, to remain on top of the National Collegiate Billiards League at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City recently.

Coming off a three-week respite, the Saints showed no signs of rust as Ritchy Gogo, playing in 8-ball doubles for the first time and teaming up with Ellezer Castillo, dominated the UE pair of John Santos and Dennelle Cruz, posting a 5-0 victory as St. Clare hiked its total to 32 points, two ahead of Far Eastern University and Philippine Maritime Institute.

After Gogo’s 11-game winning streak in 9-ball was halted by Andrei Ruiz of FEU last Dec. 19, Castillo took over his spot and overpowered Marlo Navarro, 7-2, while teammate Vennis Mariano humbled Santos in their 10-ball battle in the tournament backed by Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Accel and Negros Billiards Stable.

The Tamaraws posted a 2-1 victory over Letran while the Admirals swept Adamson, with 9-ball whiz Chris Vincent Mecenas beating Juan Franco Capul, 7-3, and Trojan Troy Montes humbling Kingford Llovit, 7-4, in 10-ball play.

Rafael Zafra and Raefred Veron completed the shutout with a 5-3 crushing of Capul and Lovit in 8-ball doubles.

Also posting shutout wins were University of Sto. Tomas, Fatima, and San Beda which clobbered Don Bosco-Mandaluyong, University of Manila and La Salle, respectively, fanning their bids in the tourney backed by H2O Hotel, Manila Ocean Park, Malungai Life Oil, Niknok Pritson Manok, Hermes Sports Bar, Human Plus Probiotics, Star Billiards Center, Brunswick, The Philippine STAR, Bugsy Promotions and Mediacom.

With San Sebastian College and Centro Escolar University failing to show up, Lyceum and Mapua received a three-point bonus in the tourney organized by Reli de Leon, Perry Mariano of Bugsy Promotion and Jonathan Sy of the Negros Billiards Stable.