Falcons halt Blazers’ run; Chiefs prevail

Adamson clamped down on defense and trounced erstwhile unbeaten St. Benilde, 80-60, to force a three-way tie for the lead in the Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan yesterday.

Sean Manganti scored 17 points, hauled down nine rebounds and dished off five assists as the Falcons wrested control early at 13-2 and never looked back on their way to notching their fifth win against one loss in Group B.

The Falcons likewise dealt the Blazers their first loss after sweeping their first five games as the two teams tied the idle Far Eastern U Tamaraws at the helm.

“That has been what we have been trying to enforce – sustained defensive effort. And we got it done,” said Adamson coach Franz Pumarez, who faced his former player TY Tang, now the Blazers’ mentor.

Jerome Lastimosa and Jerrick Ahanmisi backstopped Manganti’s efforts with 13 and 11 markers, respectively.

Kendrick Belgica fired 18 points for the Blazers.

In the other match, Arellano rallied to beat a hapless Jose Rizal U, 76-74.

Maui Sera-Josef hit a three-pointer plus a foul in the last 14.9 seconds to force a tie at 74. But Sera-Josef took a nasty fall off Justin Padua’s foul and teammate Richard Abanes stepped up to the plate and canned in the free throw and added another one off another foul to propel the Chiefs to the two-point victory.

In high school action, San Beda survived reigning NCAA champion La Salle Greenhills and eked out an 80-79 decision.