St. Clare cue artists bow to AdU

MANILA, Philippines - With its dynamic duo struggling, St. Clare Colleges dropped a 1-2 decision to Adamson U over the weekend but kept its hold of the lead in the National Collegiate Billiards League or B-League at the Star Billiards Center in Quezon City.

After cruising past Fatima, 3-0, in their first match, the Saints’ 9-Ball whiz Ritchy Gogo and 10-ball specialist Vennis Mariano lost, 5-7, to Kingford Llovit and Arvee Cabrera, respectively, in the tourney backed by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Accel and Negros Billiards Stable.

Gogo teamed up with Richard Fernandez and prevented what could have been a shutout loss by beating Llovit and Cabrera 5-1 in 10-ball play as St. Clare jacked up its point total to a league-leading 62 points, capped by a 3-0 thrashing of San Sebastian College (24) in their last match.

Gogo proved too much for SSC’s Mark San Jose 7-1 in 9-ball while Mariano vented his ire on Lex Amiel Cortez 7-3 in 10-ball. Gogo and Fernandez completed the sweep with a 5-4 squeaker past San Jose and Ian Gonzales in 8-ball doubles.

National University continued to breathe on St. Clare’s neck by improving its total to 56 markers, thanks to 3-0 victories over no-shows Centro Escolar University and University of Makati plus a 2-1 win over fifth-running Far Eastern University (50) in the tournament also 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.

Erstwhile second-running Philippine Maritime Institute slipped to third with 53 points after being held to 2-1 wins by University of the East, Mapua and Letran, with only skipper Troy Montes going perfect in his matches in the tourney organized by Reli de Leon, Perry Mariano of Bugsy Promotion and Jonathan Sy of Negros Billiards Stable.

Surging Lyceum, a point behind PMI, also propped up its bid for a quarterfinal seat by overpowering Letran and University of Sto. Tomas via 3-0 decisions and scrambling past San Beda 2-1.

FEU, at fifth with 50, also folded 1-2 at the hands of Mapua but bounced back with a hard-earned 2-1 victory over Adamson.

Rounding out the top ten after nine weeks are UE with 48, Jose Rizal University (46), Adamson (42), Letran (37), and Fatima 36.