Agape sets finals rematch vs MCS

Agape Christian School’s Feng Tianen, right, is fouled by Saipan Community School’s Miku Torres during the fourth quarter of their semis game in the private school caging yesterday at the Agape court in Middle Road. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Agape Christian School took the second and last finals berth in the 2016-2017 Commonwealth Coalition of Private School Association Basketball League after dominating Saipan Community School in their playoff game yesterday, 43-14, at the ACS court in Middle Road.

The easy win over SCS allowed Agape to arrange a finals rematch with defending champion Mt. Carmel School on Monday. The Torchbearers-Knights’ winner-take-all finale will be played at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium after the girls title game between MCS and Seventh Day Adventist. The girls championship game is set for 3:30pm.

“It’s great to be back in the finals and get another shot at Mt. Carmel,” Agape coach Noel Puno said.

“We will have a very tough game this Monday as we know MCS is so far undefeated in the tournament and they have a lot of players with good skills. If we could neutralize their guards and limit their shooters, I think we have a good chance. Our big men also have to do their job in the paint to give Mt. Carmel a nice game,” he added.

The Knights pulled off a 40-38 win over Puno’s Torchbearers in last season’s finale, working their back from an 18-point deficit in the first half, 10-28. Puno still remembers that sorry loss and he hopes to return the favor to Mt. Carmel next week.

“We were unbeaten, too going into the finals and then we lost a big lead and eventually the game. Hopefully, we learned our lessons from that defeat and one of our motivation for this year’s finals is to redeem ourselves from that heartbreaker,” Puno said.

Puno and his Torchbearers moved one step away from redemption after routing SCS in their Final Four showdown.

Agape held SCS scoreless in the first and third quarters to set up the 29-point win.

On offense, brothers Tychicus and Silas Xu again had impressive games as they combined for 22 points in the Torchbearers’ semis win. The siblings totaled 30 in Agape’s 55-26 win over Grace Christian Academy in the quarterfinals. Yang Chengxuan added 10 markers for another double-digit scoring as he had 17 in their lopsided victory against the Eagles.

Agape 43 – T. Xu 14, Chenxuan 10, S. Xu 8, Heng 7, Wenhao 2, Tianen 2.

SCS 14 – Torres 4, Sablan 4, Guerrero 2, Aguon 2.

Scoring by quarters: 8-0, 14-8, 29-8, 43-14.