High school basketball stars Ateneo's Kai Sotto and FilAm Sports USA's Jalen Green will face off at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Chooks-to-Go League National Finals.
Sotto is coming off a dominant performance -- 35 points and 15 rebounds - for Ateneo-Quezon City against Lyceum-Cavite Tuesday night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Green had a relatively quiet 11 points and four assists as FilAm Sports USA advanced with an 86-55 drubbing of Perpetual Help JONELTA-Laguna.
Kainoa Ballungay put up 24 points and 10 rebounds for FilAm Sports USA while Jeron Artest, Metta World Peace's son, contributed 12 points, 10 boards, and 6 assists.
Ateneo's Forthsky Padrigao hit a clutch basket with 46 seconds remaining against Lyceum-Cavite on Tuesday and finished with 17 points and six assists.
"What I really liked is that we faced a very strong and competitive team. They're from the NCAA so our players got an early test for next season," Ateneo coach Reggie Varilla said. "Credit to the boys. We weren't able to practice that much because it is exam week last week but they were trying. But I think we could have done a better job."
All 32 teams saw action on Tuesday as the knockout format of the tournament began. The victors all advanced to the Supreme 16 while the losers were relocated to Division 2.
In the 16 games played, 26-seed Sta. Clarita International School of Iloilo earned the day's biggest upset, toppling No. 7-seeded University of San Jose-Recoletos of Cebu, 89-75.
Steven Tono and Wilmer Dalumpines combined for 19 points in the fourth quarter when Sta. Clarita outscored the Jaguars 28-10. After being down by as much 14 points in the first quarter, they clawed their way back and finished with a flurry. Tono ended up with 26 points, four rebounds, and 3 steals. Iloilo next faces No. 10 seed Durham Crossover-Toronto.
NBTC defending champions Nazareth School of National University-Manila meanwhile flexed for a 135-45 blowout against Isabela Colleges-Cauayan. Terrence Fortea led the offense with 19 points, including four 3-pointers.
Other notable performances came from First City Providential College-Bulacan swingman John Bravo who exploded for 42 points in an 85-82 loss to Durham Crossover Toronto.
It was the second-highest point total in the12-year history of the National Finals. Green set the record last year with 51 points.
Other matchups in the Supreme 16 include NU facing Calayan Educational Foundation-Lucena, Letran versus Hope Christian, and San Beda going up against Southern Philippine Colleges-CDO.
In the other half of the tournament bracket, Mapua will be tested by FEU-Diliman, Iloilo will go for another upset against Canada, Cebu's Southwestern University-Phinma takes on Vancouver, while La Salle Green Hills meets New Zealand.
The semifinals and finals, and the All-Star Game will be streamed live on ESPN5.com. The remaining games from the seeding round and championship round will be streamed on ESPN5's Facebook page.