Christian Luanzon dropped in 26 points and practically took over in leading St. Stephen High School to a thrilling 63-62 squeaker of Grace Christian College in their battle for third place in the Fil-Chi Athletic Association Inc. 40-and-Up tournament at the Filoil EcoOil Arena in San Juan Monday night.
A PBA champion while playing for Alaska in 2007, Luanzon took charge when needed the most for St. Stephen, hitting big shots one after another.
But Luanzon got the much needed help down the stretch — first from Jasper Go, who his first and only basket in the game with 17.5 seconds to go and a big stop that resulted to an easy bucket from Patterson Ngo — as St. Stephen clawed its way back from the jaws of defeat to grab the upper hand, 63-62, time down to 10.6 seconds.
Grace Christian mapped out a good play in the final possession and St. Stephen dodged a bullet when Gilbert Sanidad missed a potential game-winning shot. Sanidad was the designated inbounder from the sideline and after passing it to the receiving Alex Lao, the former was able to receive a back screen from Albert Chua and was spotted free rolling to the basket.
But Sanidad’s point-blank shot rolled out and Grace Christian missed several more chances, Alvin Lim’s putback and Dunhill Dy’s short stab. Alex Lao’s basket went in, but failed to beat the time, allowing St. Stephen to escape with the win in this event being chaired by former PBA alternate governor Wilbert Loa with multi-titled coach Junel Baculi serving as the commissioner.
Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Erika Dy awarded the trophy to the winning third-place finisher and was joined in by officials of the FCAAI, which has applied for membership in the country’s governing cage body and in two years time, will officially become a stakeholder of the federation.
St. Stephen also got solid games from Jefferson Ong, who tallied 13 markers, while Arthur Tiu had a near double-double game of 11 points and eight rebounds.
Albert Chua flirted with a triple-double performance of 13 points, 10 assists and seven boards, but missed two crucial free throws that would have sealed the game for Grace Christian.
