Last Dance for Squires, Junior Altas

MANILA, Philippines — Letran seeks to bury the ghost of Game Two while University of Perpetual Help hopes to relive its glory in today’s rubber match for the NCAA Season 99 junior basketball trophy at the Filoil EcoOil Arena.

The Squires, 13-time league champions and winners of Game One, appeared on their way to clinching the series in Game Two when they erected a 19-point second-quarter lead only to stumble.

They had late chances to win it all but missed three free throws, including two by June Silorio in the dying seconds.
Instead, the Junior Altas stole the game, 91-90, and forced a Game Three that put them in prime position to claim what had always been a dream – a glorious high school cage championship.

“Isa pa,” said a teary-eyed UPHSD coach Johp Cleopas, a rookie coach who is on the verge of steering his hungry, ambitious charges to greatness.

Jan Pagulayan and Amiel Acido, the season MVP, delivered on the clutch but Cleopas knows their fate hangs on how they would defend Moses Manalili and Letran’s high-octane offense.
UPHSD held Manalili to just 12 points after he detonated a 35-point bomb in the opener and should come with his guns ablaze.