In his first career triple-double, Jio Jalalon displayed an amazing all around performance on both ends of the court to give the Arellano University (AU) Chiefs its second win in three games, 92-80, against the Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) Generals (0-3) Tuesday afternoon at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan City.
Scoring for the game opened with a three pointer by Mario Bonleon II coming from Sidney Onwubere followed by a putback by Hamadou Laminou to give the Generals a 5-0 lead early in the game. The Chiefs were able to tie the game at 7-all behind an the post passing of big man Julius Cadavis that led to layups by Dioncee Holts, who came of the bench this game, and rookie Brylle Meca. The Generals struggled to grab rebounds of Arellano misses the rest of the way that sparked a 13-0 Arellano-run. Crisp passing by last season’s runner’s up were on display. The quarter ended with Arellano up 22-14.
The Chiefs were flabbergasted with the press imposed by Arellano that led to turnovers and fast break layups. An 8-0 run started Allen Enriquez and capped by a Kent Salado assist to an open John Zamora gave Arellano a 30-17 lead. The Generals went on a four-minute scoring drought. At the same time, Jalalon led a 15-3 run where he had two points and four assists to give his team a 45-23 lead with 3:16 remaining. In the first half, the Generals were just 6/14 from the charity stripe while turning the ball over 20 times that led to 19 turnover points for the Chiefs. Arellano led 51-33 before halftime.
Spitfire EAC point guard Francis Munsayac instigated an 9-3 rally to cut the lead to just 12 points, 54-42 to open the second half. Unfortunately for the Generals, Jalalon controlled the pace and dished out nifty passes to find Nicholls for a couple of three pointers and a lay-up by fellow Cagayan-native Kent Salado to once again extend the lead to a 20 point lead. Third year swingman Onwubere tried to put his team back with his hustle. Onwubere scored six points in the last four minutes of the third canto to cut the lead to 15, 74-59.
In the last quarter, just like in their last game against the Lyceum Pirates, a drop-off in performance by the Chiefs resulted to a run by their opponents. The Arellano defense overcommitted on defense that resulted to the team being in the penalty at the 6:49 mark of the quarter. Onwubere became aggressive in driving to the lane and grab fouls from his defenders. In total, Onwubere was on the line for ten times but only converted on just half. The Aguinaldo swingman scored 12 points in the quarter but the lead did not go down to less than ten points. Jalalon capped his masterful performance at the 58-second mark with a bullet pass to a cutting Nichole Bangga, his 15th assist in the game. The Arellano Chiefs won the game 92-80.
The Arellano Chiefs were led by the 18 points of sharpshooter Zachary Nicholls. Nicholls was 7/12 from the field including four three-pointers. But the star of the game was Jio Jalalon who grabbed a huge triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and, a season-high 15 assists. For the Generals, Onwubere grabbed a double-double with 26 points and 10 rebounds.
Both teams combined for 56 turnovers in the game. Arellano scored 23 points from the 30 turnovers of their opponents. Moreover, Arellano shot a whopping 54% from the field compared to just the 43% of EAC. Finally, the Chiefs assisted on 32 of the 39 field goals they converted.
The Arellano Chiefs next face the Mapua Cardinals on Friday, July 17 at 4:00pm while the EAC Generals face the JRU Heavy Bombers on the same day at 2:00pm.
The Scores:
AU (92) -Nicholls 18, Jalalon 12, Enriquez 11, Holts 9, Bangga 8, Gumaru 8, Salado 6, Cadavis 6, Meca 4, Tano 4, Ortega 2, Zamora 2, Capara 2, Ongolo 0
EAC (80) – Onwubere 26, Adoumabba 11, Morada 8, Munsayac 8, Hamadou 7, Mejos 4, Corilla 4, Estacio 4, Pascua 3, Bonleon 3, Pascual 2, Diego 0, Mallari 0
Quarters: 22-14, 51-33, 74-59, 92-80.
