Eagles secure fourth straight crown

THE SACRED HEART School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) Magis Eagles achieved a rare four-peat as they defeated  St. John’s Institute (SJI), 65-50, during the championship game of the 2011 Milo BEST Twin Tournament last Sunday in Roxas City.

The Magis Eagles sputtered early but had their defense to turn as they shut down SJI’s star wingman Kib Montalvo and sped off to a 17-6 lead.

The second quarter set then took over to stretch the lead to 31-19 despite having to play with only four players for around three minutes when Gerard Mendoza suffered a bloodied nose courtesy of a wayward elbow of an SJI player. Jair Igna had 12 out of the team’s 14 second quarter points.

The game was done and over within the third as SHS-AdC established leads that went as high as 22 en route to grabbing the win and the coveted trophy.

Igna led the team with 15 points while Dawn Ochea and Dave Yu had 13 points each.

As an added bonus to the championship, SHS-AdC also won the coveted Sportsmanship Award for the first time.

In the SBP division, SHS-Ateneo de Cebu settled for second runner-up honors based on the goal difference tiebreaker after being logged in a three-way tie for first place with SJI of Bacolod and Ateneo de Iloilo (ADI).

SHS-AdC bowed to SJI earlier but nipped ADI, 37-35 and crushed Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion (CPC) of Roxas, 56-21. SJI eventually won over ADI, 48-32, to bag the SBP division championship.

SHS-AdC and SJI will now represent the Visayas at the national finals of the 26th season of the BEST SBP Passerelle Twin Tournament on Nov. 19 and 20 in Zamboanga City. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio