STI College Balagtas secures slot in final 4

 Angelito Oraye is a cut above the rest

Some teams win some teams lose. But sometimes even if you lose you get the feeling that you are not that deep in sorrow because you gave a good fight and more importantly you improved by leaps and bounds compared to how you played the last time around. This is the story of the STI College Cubao squad, the Cinderella team of the National Finals. 

 Carl Meehleib scores on the fastbreak

After getting beaten by the mighty STI College Balagtas team by a whopping 100 points in their opening game, they have since improved tremendously and the experience they got was what they brought to the National Finals when they met again. Knowing fully well the strength of their counterparts from Balagtas, the team from Quezon City did their homework by finding ways to limit their turnovers and more importantly attack the full-court pressure defense of their Balagtas counterparts.

Two STI College Balagtas players getting the ball 

STI College Balagtas beat STI College Cubao 68 – 45 for their second win in the STI National Basketball Tournament National Finals that virtually have them qualify to the round of four and a chance to win the title. Although the team from Cubao was blown away, the score did not reflect the fight that the QC squad did.  

 Franz Bacalso attacks

In the first half, the STI College Balagtas offense could not get going owing to the fact that the intensity that STI College Cubao put up matched the energy of the Bulakeños. STI College Balagtas only managed 15 first quarter points but luckily their defense held the Cubao team to only five points. In the second quarter, Carl Meehleib scattered eight points of STI College Cubao’s 17 points to outscore their Bulacan opponents for the first time in a quarter. The half ended with STI College Balagtas still ahead 30 - 22.

Jason Maglalang goes two for two

In the third quarter, STI College Cubao came to within six points after Kim Meehleib scored to make it 27 – 33. That was the cue that STI College Balagtas needed to ignite their running game as the team from Bulacan outscored the QC boys 18 - 6 the rest of the third quarter to seize control of the game 51 - 33.

Paul Macapagal shoots a three

To view the complete stats of the game please click the link below

http://www.fibalivestats.com/u/STINBT/866644/bs.html#ASFSK