St. John's Institute dribblers beat their counterparts from Bacolod Tay Tung High School, 80-71, to bag this year's NOPSSCEA Aspirant Basketball crown during the championship match at the Po Hang Gym.

Despite yielding the homecourt advantage to the Tay Tung boys, the Elvis Atinado-mentored Hua Ming young cagers made 13 three point shots to subdue BTTHS after a close 34-all first half.

Led by Marcelino Tan and Ted Ballesteros, who combined for 42 points, the victorious SJI team got a boost from inspired performance delivered by Kenneth de Leon, Ramil Calangan, Carlos Sian , Joshua Chua, Joshua Co, and Eric Jereza.

The Johnians dominated the boards on both ends of the court despite the 37 points output of Tay Tung's Kib Montalbo.

En route to the championship, the SJI Falcons (9-0) beat BTTHS Blue Dragon three times in this year's step ladder format of NOPSSCEA's aspirant division.*NAB

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