Lyceum of the Philippines University showed tremendous grace under pressure to hammer an 82-75 win over defending champion Letran College in Season 98 National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament yesterday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
Mclaude Guadaña was impressive, firing 20 points, two rebounds and two assists while Renzo Navarro added 11 points and seven assists, and Enoch Valdez chipped in five points, 12 rebounds and six steals for the Pirates, who joined idle College of Saint Benilde on top of the team standings with a 5-1 win-loss record.
Tied at 73 in the last two minutes, Guadaña buried a triple while John Barba calmly sank three of his four free throws to establish an 80-73 lead with 1:18 left.
The Knights tried to revive their flickering hopes, but Valdez poked the ball from Fran Yu that paved the way for Navarro to set up Barba to seal the victory.
Fran Yu registered 18 markers and three assists for the Knights, who absorbed their third loss in six games.
In the first game, Arellano University snapped its two-game losing streak following a 64-59 win over Mapua University.
Veteran guard Axel Doromal led the charge, firing 16 points, two rebounds and an assist for the Chiefs, who captured their third win in six matches.
Up by three, 59-56, in the final 1:20 mark, Doromal buried both free throws before Shane Menina drained a cold-blooded three-pointer with only 28.7 seconds left to give the Chiefs a 64-56 lead and keep the game out of reach.
Paolo Hernandez tried to pump life into the Cardinals by splitting his charities before Rence Nocum scored on a putback in the final 11.9 seconds.
But the rally was already late as Mapua went on to suffer its sixth straight loss.
It was another sorry loss for the school that was just one season removed from challenging Letran in the best-of-three finals showdown.
Compounding the Cardinals’ woes was the forfeiture of their 66-55 win over San Beda University in the opener after the league found out that one of their players, Gab Gamboa, is ineligible to see action as he is still enrolled at Saint Clare College of Caloocan.
The league, however, clarified that it has yet to impose a penalty on the erring player aside from the forfeiture of Mapua’s victory in the game where he played.
Still, Arellano coach Cholo Martin bared that they played with zero complacency, knowing that the Cardinals are capable of pulling off an upset despite their low morale.
“They’re second place in last season’s NCAA. Their roster is intact so we need to work on our defense. We can’t relax or else we are done for,” said Martin, whose squad scored 11 points of the Cardinals’ 18 turnovers.
“Axel and Shane are our 1-2 punch. They really took charge today.”
Hernandez fired 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Cardinals, who need to turn things around if they want to return to the Final Four this season.
The scores:
First game
ARELLANO (64) — Doromal 16, Flores 14, Menina 13, Talampas 7, Oftana 6, Tolentino 4, Abastillas 2, Oliva 2, Mallari 0, Mantua 0, Domingo 0.
MAPUA (59) — Hernandez 14, Gamboa 11, Nocum 10, Bonifacio 10, Pido 6, Agustin 4, Lacap 2, Parinas 2, Garcia 0, Soriano 0, Salenga 0.
QUARTERS: 13-8, 27-26, 46-38, 64-59.
Second game
LYCEUM (82) — Guadaña 20, Barba 12, Montano 12, Navarro 11, Larupay 9, Umali 7, Valdez 5, Culanay 3, Villegas 2, Peñafiel 1, Bravo 0, Aviles 0, Vinoya 0, Cunanan 0.
LETRAN (75) — Yu 18, Reyson 16, Caralipio 12, Santos 10, Monje 8, Olivario 6, Guarino 2, Miclat 0, Go 0, Bojorcelo 0, Bautista 0.
QUARTERS: 13-29, 35-46, 61-60, 82-75.
