After five years, the La Consolacion College-Manila Blue Royals are back as champions after capturing the 10th Inter-Scholastic Athletic Association Seniors Basketball trophy. They took a hard-fought, 75-69 decision over defending champions PATTS College of Aeronautics Sea Horses in Game Three of their best of three series Monday at the LCCM Gym.
The Blue Royals did not disappoint, as they churned out a balanced offense and pesky defense to end the Seahorses’ three-year reign and recapture the title they first won in 2013.
For a moment, the Blue Royals built an 11-point lead in fourth, 70-59, and were in cruise control. But PATTS refused to fold, while Norman Torreno took over by scoring the game’s next 10 points to put them within striking distance with 1:15 to play, 69-70.
Both sides then swapped botched plays, as the Seahorses could not convert even point-blank stabs. Thurlough Grealy was sent to the free throw on the fifth and last foul of Aldrich Lopez and split his two shots to give PATTS some hope with 16 ticks to go. Jesse Bardaje managed to intercept the inbound pass coming off a PATTS timeout for a soaring layup, 73-69.
Taking advantage of the confusion, the Blue Royals forced another turnover. Nino Tamayo scooted down for another layup to finalize the score.
“What you saw in the last minute was the result of all the hard work we put in since last April,” said champion coach Bong de la Cruz. “The character of the team came out and it was all about our defense, it’s doubly challenging when you have to build a team from scratch with all our newcomers this season.”
Six of the nine players fielded by De La Cruz scored eight more points with Paul Harley Dagunan leading the assault with 14 and the Most Valuable Player of the Finals award.
Tamayo and Bardaje were next with 13 each.
PATTS’ offense was concentrated on Torreno, who led all scorers with 27 points, while Mark Jayson Morada had 22. Lopez was next with only seven points, as he lapsed into early foul trouble.
Grealy was hailed as the season MVP. He was joined in the Mythical Five by teammate TJ Carino, Leonard Mengoy, and Lopez of PATTS and Gabrielle Aguas of Trinity University of Asia.
The Scores
LCCM (75) – Dagunan 14, Tamayo 13, Bardaje 13, Grealy 12, Carino 8, Latoreno 8, Navarette 4, Talag 3, Lopez 0.
PATTS (69) – Torreno 27, Morada 22, Lopez 7, Bautista 6, Po 4, Mengoy 2, Reed 1, Palencia 0, Saliddin 0, JG Reyes 0.
Quarterscores: 16-13, 36-30, 53-49, 75-69.
