Lions roar, chase away Knights
Fighting Maroons, Tamaraws eye No. 2 versus Eagles, Tigers
Opening-day winner University of the Philippines seeks to sustain the momentum as it eyes its own upset today against an Ateneo side determined to take off after getting caged in the kickoff weekend of the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament.
The Katipunan neighbors clash at 4 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum with the souped-up Fighting Maroons (1-0) looking to do an Adamson and shoot down the Blue Eagles (0-1) for the second straight game.
“We know what we can do and we all know what Ateneo is all about so we prepared for them,” said UP coach Bo Perasol, whose wards started their campaign with an 87-58 thrashing of University of the East.
“The good thing about this is in every position right now, we can match up with Ateneo. They’re the champions so we need to have our A1 game against them and do what we can do,” he added.
Heavily favored Ateneo failed to escape the upset axe against Adamson, yielding a 70-74 shocker last Sunday, but maintained everything’s under control.
“People think there’s asteroids falling outside and the world has ended but we don’t,’ said AdMU mentor Tab Baldwin.
“We have to keep our heads up and realize that we play basketball to play well. We didn’t play well enough. Now we have to learn from it, we have to continue trying to improve that so that a different result will be there,” he added.
After disposing of rebuilding La Salle, 68-61, veteran-laden Far Eastern (1-0) aims to get another good result in the 2 p.m. first game versus new-look Santo Tomas (0-1), a team now handled by former Archers tactician Aldin Ayo.
San Beda pulled away in the third quarter but needed to toughen up in the clutch to fend off a rallying Letran side and hack out a 74-68 victory to firm up its hold of second spot in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan yesterday.
The Red Lions broke away from a tight 35-32 game in the first half by outscoring the nights, 25-10, at the resumption of the contest then used another run in the fourth to post a 69-45 bulge heading to the last six minutes.
But as the Lions’ offense turned sour, the Knights unleashed a 23-2 run behind JP Calvo and Bong Quinto as the Knights threatened to within, 68-69, with 16.8 seconds remaining.
But Franz Abuda and Joe Presbitero bailed the Lions out of trouble with three free throws and Letran’s Bonbon Batiller misfired on his three-point attempt on the other end as the Lions claimed their fifth straight win and 11th overall against a loss, half-a-game behind unbeaten and lone tormentor the Lyceum of the Philippines U Pirates (11-0).
Letran at 7-4, later put the game under protest.
The Knights, who were led by Quinto’s 19 points, fell to 7-4 (win-loss).
In the other game, Michael Calisaan hit the front end of his charities but missed the second as San Sebastian pulled off a 66-65 reversal over College of St. Benilde to move to solo seventh.
Blazers’ Justin Gutang actually went coastto-coast after Calisaan missed and appeared to have hit the game-winning drive at the buzzer. But after a long review, officials ruled that the ball still touched Gutang’s fingers as time expired, nullifying the basket and handing the Stags the win, their third against nine losses.
CSB, which dropped to joint fourth with Letran at 7-4, later put the game under protest.