SHSJ Rallies to Beat Mindanao Champs
SHSJ Rallies to Beat Mindanao Champs
Iloilo City – Lucky to be alive. This best describes the plight of the Sacred Heart School Jesuit (SHSJ) Eagles after scoring a come-from-behind 62-61 win over Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori (SHJM) of Cagayan de Oro to make it to the championship of the national finals of the SBP-Passerelle Twin Basketball tournament sponsored by Milo at the University of San Agustin Gym.
Playing what could be described as an ugly win, the Eagles played one of their worst games so far in the tournament and still came out on top, thanks to a massive end-game rally that was capped by a lay-up by Daryl Nazareno with 13 seconds left in the game to score the win.
The Mindanao champs jumped the gun on the Eagles, controlling all of the game but just couldn’t get the job done in the end. SHJM’s first unit surprised the SHSJ by taking the first period, 22-19. They padded the lead to nine, 39-28 at halftime and increased this to 52-41 after three quarters. The lead swelled to 12 at 58-46 before SHSJ finally made its move.
Using two point guards in Gabe Branzuela and Monmon Mangubat to lead a full court pressing defense, SHSJ went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to three, 55-58 with 3:05 left in the game. After an SHJM basket made it 60-55, Branzuela, who scored nine of his 11 points in this fourth quarter rally, drilled a triple with 2:12 left. Justin de la Cruz scored on a putback to tie the game with 1:40 left in the game, sending the SHSJ crowd up on their feet. SHJM could only score a point from the free throw line to up their lead to 61-60 with 1:17 left, setting the stage for the game-winning lay-up of Nazareno who outran the SHJM defense in a footrace to the basket. The Eagles then shut down SHJM, forcing the ball out of bounds, and denying them of a good shot at the basket. Branzuela, Nazareno, Mangubat and Justin de la Cruz shone in the fourth quarter rally that had SHSJ fans and followers shaking their heads with mixed feelings of disbelief and relief. The common sentiment was that while the Eagles did enough to win, it wasn’t a pretty sight as they’ve played much better games in the past.
As of this writing, SHSJ was battling pre-tourney favorites La Salle Greenhills in the Passerelle championship game. In the SBP championship game, Ateneo de Manila was matched up against Ateneo de Davao.
Iloilo City – Lucky to be alive. This best describes the plight of the Sacred Heart School Jesuit (SHSJ) Eagles after scoring a come-from-behind 62-61 win over Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori (SHJM) of Cagayan de Oro to make it to the championship of the national finals of the SBP-Passerelle Twin Basketball tournament sponsored by Milo at the University of San Agustin Gym.
Playing what could be described as an ugly win, the Eagles played one of their worst games so far in the tournament and still came out on top, thanks to a massive end-game rally that was capped by a lay-up by Daryl Nazareno with 13 seconds left in the game to score the win.
The Mindanao champs jumped the gun on the Eagles, controlling all of the game but just couldn’t get the job done in the end. SHJM’s first unit surprised the SHSJ by taking the first period, 22-19. They padded the lead to nine, 39-28 at halftime and increased this to 52-41 after three quarters. The lead swelled to 12 at 58-46 before SHSJ finally made its move.
Using two point guards in Gabe Branzuela and Monmon Mangubat to lead a full court pressing defense, SHSJ went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to three, 55-58 with 3:05 left in the game. After an SHJM basket made it 60-55, Branzuela, who scored nine of his 11 points in this fourth quarter rally, drilled a triple with 2:12 left. Justin de la Cruz scored on a putback to tie the game with 1:40 left in the game, sending the SHSJ crowd up on their feet. SHJM could only score a point from the free throw line to up their lead to 61-60 with 1:17 left, setting the stage for the game-winning lay-up of Nazareno who outran the SHJM defense in a footrace to the basket. The Eagles then shut down SHJM, forcing the ball out of bounds, and denying them of a good shot at the basket. Branzuela, Nazareno, Mangubat and Justin de la Cruz shone in the fourth quarter rally that had SHSJ fans and followers shaking their heads with mixed feelings of disbelief and relief. The common sentiment was that while the Eagles did enough to win, it wasn’t a pretty sight as they’ve played much better games in the past.
As of this writing, SHSJ was battling pre-tourney favorites La Salle Greenhills in the Passerelle championship game. In the SBP championship game, Ateneo de Manila was matched up against Ateneo de Davao.
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