Agape extends streak to seven

Agape Christian School’s Dawei Cai pulls up for a jumper against two Saipan Community School defenders during the second quarter of their game in the middle school division of the COPSSA caging yesterday at the Agape court. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Agape Christian School stretched its streak to seven after downing two teams this week in the middle school division of the 2015-2016 Coalition of Private School Sports Association Basketball League.

The Torchbearers got victory No. 6 at the expense of Saipan International School last Tuesday, 55-27, and their seventh over Saipan Community School yesterday, 48-26.

The 1-2 punch of Haoyu Chen and Dawei Chan continued to shine for Agape as they scored in double figures in both wins.

Versus SIS at the Geckos court in As Lito, Chen tallied a game-high 19 points, while Cai chipped in 11.

Chen matched SIS’s entire output in the first quarter to lift the Torchbearers to a 12-6 lead. Lue Xiong and Cai combined for the 6 other markers of Agape, while SIS drew 4 points from Seung Mock You and 2 from Marck Velasquez.

Chen kept going in the second period, adding 9 more points to increase Agape’s advantage to twin digits, 29-12. Three other Torchbearers hit the board in the second frame to back up Chen, while SIS still had only Velasquez and You scoring for the Geckos.

As SIS continued to rely on You and Velasquez, it failed to make headway in the second half and mount a comeback, while Agape began using its bench players and got contributions from them to finish off the Geckos. Seven players of Agape coach Noel Puno made it to the team’s box score at the end of the one-sided match, while only 4 SIS players nailed baskets for the host team.

Velasquez paced SIS with his 12 markers, while You chipped in 10 and Steven Goodwin and Henry Qian logged 3 and 2, respectively.

In the Agape-SCS tiff yesterday, the Tsunamis managed to keep up with the former only in the first quarter, as the Torchbearers led by 4, 13-9, after the first eight minutes of play.

Agape then started building a good lead in the second quarter, 30-11, en route to its seventh straight victory in the double-elimination regular season.

Cai top-scored for Agape with his 14 points, while Chen registered 12. Oliver Lee had 12 points to lead SCS.

The victory against SCS was Agape’s second in as many games against the Susupe-based school as last Feb. 2, the division leaders notched a 31-23 triumph. With the win, Agape is three games away from sweeping the regular season.

Puno and his wards will gun for victory No. 8 on Tuesday against Mt. Carmel School, while their last two matches will be versus Seventh Day Adventist on Thursday and SIS on Feb. 29.

Agape 55 — Chen 19, Cai 11, S. Xu 6, Xiong 6, T. Xu 4, Guintu 3, Zhang 2, Lin 2, Du 2.

SIS 27 — Velasquez 12, You 10, Goodwin 3, Qian 2.

Scoring by quarters: 12-6, 29-12., 45-20, 55-27.