St. John's Institute and Doña Montserrat Lopez Memorial High School "B" shared the limelight by snaring the 12-Under and 15-Under titles, respectively at the close of the inaugural Mayor Jose "Oti" Montelibano Cup at the Natalio Velez Gym in Silay City.

Montserrat went on a third-quarter tear and held off Son Bosco Technical Institute's late rally for a 77-69 victory, after St. John's cruised to a 77-58 triumph over Barangay Rizal in the 12-Under finals.

Guard Kenneth De Leon, later named Most Valuable Player, registered a game-high 25 points to lead SJI, which swept all of its six games in the tournament.

St. John's turned up the pressure in the fourth quarter to pull away from a 55-47 lead at the end of the third quarter and stroll to a relatively easy victory. Joshua Chua, one of three SJI players in the mythical five, contributed 15 points, while Joshua Co added 11 points. Emilio Japson, Julian Yusay and Zoey Pandan combined for 16 more points.

Powered by MVP Melchor Cordero, Montserrat "B" overcame a sluggish start and took the sting out of Don Bosco's game with tight interior defense to follow up its upset of Montserrat "A" Saturday.

More than his 21 points, Cordero was a huge factor on the defensive end, limiting the production of Don Bosco big men Angelo Celis and Darrel Diamante.

Together with Christopher Ordilla, Christopher Oligo and Rodney Defira, they erected a 65-46 bubble early in the fourth period, before Don Bosco tried to make a game out of it only to fall short in the end.

Montserrat fell behind, 10-17, heading into the second period but Cordero did the damage on the fast-break to give the DMMHS squad of coach Ryan Nabor a 30-27 cushion at the break.

Although Diamante and Celis caused all sorts of problems to Montserrat, their poor free throw shooting limited their effectiveness.

And Montserrat readily pounced on the opportunities, breaking Don Bosco's press to establish double-digit leads only to allow the Victorias-based quintet to move within 66-72 late in the game.

Ordilla made two free throws to put the outcome beyond doubt with 17 seconds left.

Oligo finished with 13 points, while Ordilla and Jade Aguirre added 9 and 8, respectively.

John Dullan, who stood at the forefront of Don Bosco's last quarter assault, paced his team with 17 points with Diamante and Celis adding 15 apiece.*CPT

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