Sta. Clarita of Iloilo wins Batang PBA Visayas finals

What a tough day it was for the University of the Visayas in the CloudFone Batang PBA Regional Finals.

It had one food in the door for a trip to the national finals, but the door was shut after a heart-breaking loss to an unlikely conqueror at the Magis Eagles Arena.

Needing two wins to bag the championship, UV overcame Sta. Clarita International School of Iloilo, 78-70, but later bowed to STI-West Negros University of Bacolod, 65-67, in a thriller that went down the wire and created a first-ever triple tie for first place among the three teams in the regional finals.

STI-WNU had earlier lost to Sta. Clarita, 82-97, and UV was expected to take care of the Bacolod champions with relative ease. But the Bacolod champions had something else in mind. In the end, Sta. Clarita International School won the championship via the backdoor, thanks to their Bacolod neighbors.

After trailing 22-23 at halftime, and leading, 45-43 at the end of the third quarter, STI-WNU built a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter, collapsed after a massive UV rally of triples, then gutted it out to score a morale-boosting win that actually didn’t mean any trip to the national finals for them.Instead, Iloilo is going to the national finals.

STI-WNU stormed to a 58-46 lead to kick off the fourth quarter, and looked headed towards a convincing win. But UV countered with five straight triples in a 15-2 run to take a 61-59 lead with  3:18 left in the game.

Bon Brix Balontong and Aldave Canoy then combined to give STI-WNU a 64-61 lead with 1:52 left. Royce Alforque sliced the lead to 64-63, but missed two free throws that could’ve given UV the lead with 1:30 left. Canoy gave the Bacolod champs a 66-63 lead, 55 ticks remaining but Osias Padilla replied for UV, 66-65, with 28 seconds left.

After a Bacolod turnover, UV had another chance to take the lead but Jose Zaldy Dizon missed a floater along the baseline. Balontong, who scored all of his eight points in the fourth quarter, iced the win with a free throw with 1.2 seconds left. UV had one last chance to either tie the game or win, but their endgame play wasn’t executed well and they couldn’t get off a shot in time.

Aldave Canoy had 26 points to lead STI-WNU as Dave Agbas dropped 14. Froiland Maglasang drilled six triples as he led UV with 21 points. Alforque had 15 while Dizon scored 14.

With all teams tied with 1-1 records, Sta. Clarita came out on top by virtue of its 15-point victory over Bacolod. They will play in the national finals of the CloudFone Batang PBA in Metro Manila from May 28 to June 4. Ralph Bajon was named CloudFone MVP of the tournament and was rewarded with a CloudFone smart cellphone. Jose Zaldy Dizon also won a CloudFone smart cellphone for winning the CloudFone three-point shoot-out.

CloudFone Regional Manager Ronald Estavilla presented the championship trophy and special prizes to the winners. This is the first time for a non-Cebu team to make it to the national finals ever since the Batang PBA for 13 to 16 year old players was launched in 2012. UV represented the Visayas in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The tournament took a break in 2015.