La Salle Greenhills - Xavier School - Passerelle Semi-Finals Box Score

Xavier Escapes Pesky LSGH in Passerelle Semis

The clock ticking down, with the ball in his hands, Alaska Jr-NBA Youth Ambassador looks at clock as it winds down. He goes to his dominant side brushes away a defender and goes up for a floater and banks it in giving Xavier a 2-point lead with 13 seconds left in the game and leads Xavier to a 59-57 victory against the tough La Salle Greenhills squad.

The game started of slowly for the Stallions as it couldn’t buy a basket from the field and the charity stripe. Both teams threw the ball away countless of times, which made the coaches of both sides furious. Changgi Hong tried to carry the load of the Stallions scoring 7 of his 9 points in the 1^st canto. La Salle capitalized on the Stallions gambling man-to-man pressure, which led to numerous easy under goal stabs. At the end of the 1^st quarter buzzer, the score was 11-18 in favor the men in green.

The 2^nd quarter troops of Head Coach Owen Oliva again started poorly from the field but it managed to dictate the tempo of the game forcing numerous turnovers from the Green Archers. As the quarter passed, La Salle managed to find a way to break Xavier’s daunting man-to-man defense and a variety of their zone presses to go up 23-16 until Alaska – Jr. NBA Ambassador Jarrell Lim single-handedly took over the game scoring relentlessly to keep the Stallions at bay. At the end of the quarter it was just down to a 2 point lead for the Green Archers, 29-27.

During the 3^rd quarter, Xavier capitalized on its height advantage and scored on numerous second chance attempts to even the score at 36 all on Anton Lapez’s 3-point play conversion. As all things looked bright for the Stallions, RP Youth U-16 mainstay Isaac Go was called for 3 fouls in the first 5 minutes alone giving La Salle numerous chances to take the ball out and set their offense. As the Stallions still continued to clank baskets, their aggressiveness merited them numerous free throws but they didn’t take advantage of it.

During payoff period, the Stallions went on a relentless attack anchored by their defense. As they took their first lead of the game at 46-45, both sides exchanged baskets until Jarrell Lim hit the game-winner with 13 ticks remaining. La Salle tried to win the game but their 3-point attempt clanked off the back iron and the Stallions will advance to next week’s Finals for the third time in the last four years.

Lim ended up with a game-high 19 points on 6/9 shooting from the field (1/1 3PTs) and 6/9 from the charity stripe. Following him was Changgi Hong with 9, Isaac Go with 8 points plus a game-high 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. Anton Lapez and Tonito Puyat had 6 points apiece.

The Stallions will get a chance to defend their Passerelle crown next week against the winner of the Claret and San Beda game in the Poveda Gym.

The Scores:

Xavier 59: Lim 19, Hong 9, Go 8, Lapez 6, Puyat 6, Sy 3, Yu 3, Tio 2,  Ejercito 2, Ong 1, Gemzontan 0, A. Tan 0, J. Tan 0, Chuacuco 0, Yeung 0.

Quarter Scores: 11-17, 27-29, 43-45, 59-57. 

I Will Protect This House

In light of tomorrow's Passerelle game, a motivational video for all the players.

#ProtectThisHouse #DefendTheCrown

The Nike Mag - Preview

Schedule of Games (September 10 and 11)

Game: PCC vs Xavier - PRADA Juniors
Time: 9:45 AM
Venue: Jacinto Tiu Competition Court
Date: September 10, 2011 (SATURDAY)

Game: Claret vs Xavier - PAYA Juniors
Time: 12:30 PM
Venue: High School Gym
Date: September 10, 2011 (SATURDAY)

Game: LSGH vs Xavier - Passerelle Semi-finals
Time: 1:00 PM
Venue: High School Gym Cement Court 1
Date: September 11, 2011 (SUNDAY)

The BEST Game of the Summer

Since the NBA Lockout is far from being fixed, some of the greatest players on the planet are strutting their stuff in some of the different summer leagues around the United States. Several of the more notable summer leagues that players such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, John Wall, Brandon Jennings, Josh Selby, among many others are the Drew League and the Goodman League. 

But what happens when you make both of these leagues compete against each other in a basketball game? All hell breaks lose making this arguably the BEST game of the summer. 

The videos pretty much speak for itself. 

Xavier Trounces Tiger Cubs in Passerelle Quarters

With the championship hopes of Xavier in the balance, Isaac Go grabs his own miss, goes up strong and makes a putback. That basket was the turning point of the game when Xavier, after trailing as much as 8 points tied the game and never looked back as it trounced a pesky UST squad, 58-44.

Xavier’s 1^st quarter unit drew first blood after a split from the charity stripe by Jacob Ejercito and afterwards, they couldn’t seem to buy a basket both inside and outside. The Tiger Cubs, despite committing numerous turnovers, managed to score and break the Stallions daunting man-to-man press and even a variety of its zone presses.

During the 2^nd quarter, the Golden Stallions tried to capitalize on UST’s 4-man team since one of the players was injured but Alaska Jr. NBA Youth Ambassador Jarrell Lim struggled immensely as he just arrived from Hong Kong the morning of the game. This did not stop him from contributing, as he became a facilitator finishing with a game-high, 5 assists. Freshman Center Aldrich Tan was the recipient of most of Lim’s passes and was a revelation inside the paint scoring a game-high 15 points in an impressive 7 of 10 shooting from the field.  Despite the lack of players on the opposing side and the Lim-Tan inside-out combination, the Tiger Cubs still led 21-28 in halftime.

After an encouraging message from Head Coach Owen Oliva during the short halftime break, the shock troopers of Coach O responded with a 15-0 run to start the quarter and finally grab their first taste of the lead ever since the opening tip. RP Youth U-16 mainstay, Isaac Go was a beast on both ends of the court as he finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds, and a game-high 4 blocks despite staying on the opposite end of the court for most of the game. Point Guard Anton Lapez controlled the tempo of the game finding his teammates for quality shots but when it was necessary, he was willing to score, finishing with 8 points. The Stallions limited UST to just 4 points in this quarter and their defense changed the complexion of the game.

The final canto was a slugfest with both teams exchanging baskets and verbal jabs. The Stallions didn’t allow their UST counterparts to tick them off their game and they continued the relentless attack.

The Stallions continue their defense of the Passerelle crown as they will take on most probably La Salle Greenhills next week in the Semi-Finals. Bad blood is expected from both teams as La Salle eliminated Xavier two of the last three years and Xavier demolished the Green Archers last year en-route to their second Passerelle crown in 4 years.