Agape, MBA enter semis

Agape Christian School’s Bao Heng goes up for an off-balance shot against two Grace Christian Academy defenders during their playoff game in the private school caging yesterday at the ACS court in Middle Road. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Agape Christian School and Marianas Baptist Academy gained semis berths in the boys middle school division of the 2016-2017 Commonwealth Coalition of Private School Association Basketball League after eliminating their playoff foes yesterday.

Agape dominated Grace Christian Academy, 55-26, in their quarterfinal match yesterday at the former’s home court in Middle Road, while MBA downed Seventh Day Adventist, 21-12, at the latter’s turf in Chalan Kiya.

Yang Chenxuan and siblings Tychicus and Silas Xu teamed up in powering Agape to the easy victory that put last year’s finalist a step closer to a return trip to the championship game. Chenxuan scored 17 points, while Silas and Tychicus chipped in 16 and 14, respectively.

All three Agape gunners scored right in the first quarter, lifting the Torchbearers to a double-digit lead against the Eagles, 15-5. GCA, which finished the season winless, was held to two field goals and continued to struggle offensively in the next two periods before scoring in twin digits in the final period.

Silas, who matched his brother’s two field goals in the first canto, added 8 points in the second to lead Agape’s attack and pad their lead to 18 at the break, 27-9.

The Xu brothers then combined for 10 points in the third frame, while Yang made up for his lone field goal in the second after registering 8 points, allowing the Torchbearers to pull away, 47-14. For the third straight quarter, GCA was limited to two field goals and was on the brink of elimination with one period left in the playoff game.

With its big lead going into the fourth quarter, Agape had the luxury of resting its top scorers and giving playing time to its second and third stringers. The Torchbearers also let their guards down a bit in the final frame, allowing the Eagles more open shots. GCA hit more than two field goals for the first time and cut the deficit to a decent number at the end of the match.

With Agape’s lopsided win, it arranged a semis duel against the winner of the Saipan International School-Saipan Community School playoff game, which was scheduled yesterday, but was cancelled due to the unplayable SCS court. The postponed match may be played today, while the semis game is tentatively set for tomorrow with Agape again as the host team.

“We will work more on our shooting and defense in the semis and hopefully we will be able to make it to the finals again,” Agape coach Noel Puno said.

In the other semis pairing, MBA will challenge the unbeaten and defending champion Mt. Carmel School. The Knights, who eked out a 40-38 title win over Agape last year, posted an impressive 12-0 record in the regular season to take the outright semis seat, while MBA finished fourth in the rankings to set a quarterfinal showdown against the No. 5 SDA. Other details of the MBA-SDA tiff were unavailable at press time.

Agape 55 – Chenxuan 17, S. Xu 16, T. Xu 14, Heng 4, Wenhao 2, Dongchu 2.
GCA 26 – Balakrishna 14, Daproza 8, Woo 2, Si 2.
Scoring by quarters: 15-5, 27-9, 47-14, 55-26.