BAGUIO City – University of Santo Tomas easily made it to the crossover semifinals by crushing hapless St. Bridget College, 80-32, yesterday in the SBP National Under-16 Basketball championship at the Easter College gym.

But University of Visayas and St. John Institute needed the help of higher quotients to get through.

The Cebuanos, who previously lost to St. John in overtime, 99-91, dismantled St. Clare, 98-71, while La Union College of Nursing and Arts & Sciences beat St. John, 84-78, at the Cordillera Career Development College in Benguet, La Trinidad.

UV, St. John and LUCNAS finished the elimination with identical 4-1 cards, but UV and St. John earned playoff berths with quotients of 1.0294 and 1.0114, respectively, compared to LUCNAS’ 0.9567.

Stung by their 88-78 defeat to Group “B” qualifier and undefeated Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori last Wednesday, the UST Baby Tigers vented their ire on the Batangueños to clinch the walk-in-the-park win.

UST, one of two National Capital Region teams, finished the elimination round with a 4-1 card and joined Sacred Heart (5-0) to the next round of the tournament presented by Summit Mineral Water and supported by Energen Nutrition Milk and Cereal, Philex Mining, Molten and the MVP Sports Foundation.

Santo Tomas meets UV at 1:30 p.m. Friday and Sacred Heart of Jesus faces St. John Institute at 3 p.m. at the University of Baguio gym.