Thursday, January 08, 2009 Baby Falcons eye final slots By Henry G. Doble Contributor
ST. JOHN’S Institute made a right decision to field two entries. Its White team finished first in the elimination and its Blue squad ranked third in the top four.
A win on Saturday's crossover semifinal against (number 4) University of St. La Salle-Green and (number 2) Bacolod Tay Tung High School, respectively, will pit SJI coaches Jake Azucena and Rey Pandoro in the finals.
The Blue Falcons, however, have to beat the Baby Dragons twice before entertaining the possibility of a 1-2 finish.
It is a tall order as Bobby Tee's wards burned the Blues, without star Ralph Penuela, 57-29 on November 16. While it will be another story with Penuela suiting up, the Tay Tung boys will be a tough customer as John Vergara and Luke Liza are peaking. Both are in the top ten scorers in this year's pre-Nopsscea preview sponsored by Panasonic and organized by Basketball Unified Sports Group.
SJI White is favored to breeze past USLS Green if its 75-37 win last December 21 serve as the barometer. The La Sallians might spring some surprises if Adrian Caram, who averages 20 points per game, play his usual game and gets support from Iolo Angelo Villo, Miguel Luis Narcida and Andre Dominic Dadivas.
Miguel Jison, Timothy Montinola, Ian Japzon, and Rafael Puentevella all shared the points with restraint in order to give playing time for other Baby Falcons. The playoff is a different game and the experienced quartet will make a short warm up of the Baby Green Stingers.
Game time for SJI White-USLS Green is 8 a.m., followed by BTTHS and SJI Blue at 9:30 at Po Hang gym.
If the top two teams prevail, the losers play for third and the winners for the title on Sunday, January 11.
Most valuable player (MVP) and the mythical five, who will be selected from grade 3 and 4 players, will be announced by league organizer Bing Soyao during the championship.
