Bleacher Talk

Bleacher Talk October 25, 2009 CESAFI Finals: Battle of the Giants UV, UC, Slaughter, Fajardo, Cabahug/Solis, Gomez. Put all these names together and what do you have? Cebu’s deadliest concoction in basketball. If this were a cocktail drink, you’d be drunk after only one shot. It’s the CESAFI 2009 finals and nothing can get any better for the CESAFI this year after a “rough” season both on and off the court. Although the 2009 season will be remembered for isolated problems off the court, it should also be remembered for the battle of the giants. And we’re not talking only about the Slaughter-Fajardo showdown. For starters, we have to give credit to both UV and UC for establishing basketball programs that other schools could only drool at. There’s a lot of talk about the Slaughter-Fajardo battle, but already being established behind the scenes and even bigger from a total view is the battle between the two biggest school-based programs outside Metro Manila. The finals is also going to b...

SHSJ is Visayas Passerelle Champion USC South is Runner-up to Ateneo de Iloilo in SBP Roxas City - Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHSJ) scored a back-to-back championship in the Visayas Regional Finals of the Milo-backed BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournament after outlasting Iloilo Commercial Central High School (ICCHS), 84-75. But it didn’t come easy. The Eagles raced off to a 30-15 lead after one quarter behind the 16 points of Kris Porter and 12 of Rebreb Diputado. The lead was sustained through halftime with SHSJ enjoying a 47-34 lead. That’s when ICCHS decided to make a move. They outshot the Eagles in the third quarter to cut the SHSJ lead down to 64-55 after three periods. At one point, ICCHS got as close as five, 52-55 in the third period before SHSJ retaliated with its own counter rally. ICCHS banked on its momentum to repeatedly attach the interior SHSJ defense, cutting down the lead to 62-66 at the six minute mark of the fourth quarter. Porter, Diputado, and Adrian Muller then co...

SHSJ, USC South in Visayas Finals Roxas City - Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHSJ) and University of San Carlos South Campus (USC) barged into the championship of the Visayas Regional Finals of the Milo-sponsored BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournament after scoring two convincing wins each in the elimination round. The Eagles, Visayas defending champions in the Passerelle division, thumped St. John’s Institute (SJI) of Bacolod 73-59 in its first game. SHSJ led from start to finish, controlling all departments of the ballgame in erecting a 41-22 halftime lead enroute to the big win that kicked off the winning run of the two Cebu teams that are playing here in Roxas. USC South then trooped to the court and duplicated the win of its elder counterparts as they crushed St. John’s Institute of Bacolod, 51-38, in a Small Basketeers Philippines (SBP) game. USC South broke open a close game after taking a 20-14 halftime lead, streaking to a 37-25 lead at the end of three quarters. It was cruise cont...

Bleacher Talk Oct. 18, 2009 Boom Boom Goes Left The left was right after all. This was the biggest message that Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista sent out Friday night to announce that he was ready for another run at big-time boxing. After an 11-month lay-off and surgery done on his left wrist, Boom Boom proved that along with his right hand, his left is also just as effective and can be relied on to send boxers to sleep. Boom Boom knocked out Indonesian junior featherweight champion Marangin “Dinamita” Marbun in the seventh round for the interim WBC International featherweight championship Friday night as ALA Promotions made a big comeback at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino. The most impressive “adjustment” that Boom Boom made was when he used his left hand in various ways to score the win. His left jab did a great job of keeping Marbun at a distance and thus negating Marbun’s aggressive ways. Note that Marbun was resilient and managed to land a few bombs of his own despite Boom Boom...

BEST Center Cebu SHSJ, USC South win Milo BEST The Sacred Heart School Jesuit (SHSJ) and the University of San Carlos (USC) South Campus are this year’s champions of the Milo-backed BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournament. SHSJ scored its third straight Passerelle division championship after overcoming USC North, 92-80. In the Small Basketeers Philippines division, USC South out seated defending champion USC North with a 56-46 win. Both wins however, didn’t come easy as both squads had to overcome mid-game rallies to bag their championships. In the Passerelle title game, SHSJ started out hot to take the first quarter 25-12 behind the troika of Kris Porter, Rebreb Diputado and Franz Gabuya. USC North then countered in the second period when SHSJ had to field four players with a player in sickbay. The Baby Warriors cut the lead down to 43-39 at halftime then sustained the rally to close the gap further 62-61 after three quarters. USC North’s rally actually gave them their first taste of the ...

BEST Center Cebu Semifinals Results (Passerelle Division) SHSJ, USC in Milo BEST Passerelle Finals For the second year in a row, the Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHSJ) and the University of San Carlos (USC) North Campus will clash for the championship of the Passerelle division of the Milo-sponsored BEST SBP/Passerelle Twin Tournaments for Cebu. Back-to-back Cebu champion SHSJ survived some scary moments before outscoring the University of Cebu (UC), 92-78, while USC North overcame the hot three-point shooting of Don Bosco to score an 80-73 win at the cross-over semifinals held at the USPF Gym. After seizing control of the first quarter at 17-13, SHSJ crumbled to the pressure of playing against the four-man second period UC squad led by Jerie Pingoy. Pingoy combined forces with Jerick Yburan to give UC a 39-32 lead at halftime. But all of Pingoy and Yburan’s efforts went down the drain in the third quarter as SHSJ seized control of the game, overtaking UC at 42-41 with 7:10 left in the ...