ATHLETICS

Xavier Stallions Gallop to the Finals
Henry Liao (XS '72)

Posted Thursday, 09-Feb-2006 12:15 PM

      For the sixth consecutive year, unbeaten Xavier School reached the finals of the Juniors Division of the Tiong Lian basketball tournament after blasting UNO, 77-58, Wednesday night in semifinal match at the UNO gym.

      The Stallions fell behind by as much as six points (13-7) midway through the first quarter as Coach Patrick Aquino was forced to shuffle his lineup because of Marc Tio's foul trouble. The first quarter went to UNO, 25-23, as it overcame Xavier's Woody Co's 11 markers in the first 10 minutes.

      UNO scored the first basket of the second quarter to stretch its lead 27-23, but Xavier retaliated with six straight points to seize the lead for the first time, 29-27. After UNO tied the score at 29 all, Xavier went on a 9-0 run (38-29) behind Philmon Yao's five points.

      Thereafter, Xavier never trailed. Halftime score was 38-32. UNO opened the third quarter with a basket, 38-34, but another 9-0 blast (47-34) by the Stallions practically ended the hopes of UNO, which needed to win to force a rubber match against Xavier.

      Woody Co had a dozen points in the third quarter, which ended 57-42 in Xavier's favor. Xavier led by 11 points (57-46) or more throughout the fourth quarter.

      The lead ballooned to as much as 23 points, 77-54, on Charles Tiu' second three-pointer of the night.

      The 6-3 Co, who knocked in a tournament-high 53 points in the elimination-round against UNO, collected 22 of his game-high 35 points in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Bridging the third and fourth quarters, Co once scored 12 straight Xavier points.

      Aside from his 35 points, Co grabbed eight rebounds and blocked four enemy missiles. Three other Xavier players scored in double figures--Tio, 13, Yao , 11, and Tiu, 10.

      Kevin Lee, who missed Xavier's 122-61 shellacking of UNO in a Jan. 27 elimination game, top-scored for UNO with 25 points, including 13-of-13 from the free-throw line. Overall, UNO shot 22-of-26 from the foul line while making its first 16 freebies of the game.

      In the second semifinal game Wednesday night, gutsy St. Jude Catholic School forced a rubber match with a 61-58 upset of second-ranked Chiang Kai Shek.

      CKS, which beat St. Jude 75-71 during the first round, held a 58-54 lead with three minutes left but St. Jude scored the game’s final seven points to win by three.

      Xavier will clash with the winner of Friday night’s CKS-St. Jude do-or-die match in the best-of-three finals that start on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, at 6:00 p.m. while the second game will be played Feb. 16 at 6:00 p.m. If necessary, the third game will be held on Feb. 18 at 6:00 p.m.

      Going into the finals, Co is averaging 25.7 points per game (seven games). Tiu owns a 12.4-point clip while Yao averages 9.6 points per game.

Go back to the top ^