Arellano University pulled out an early season upset on Sunday in the NCAA Season 98 Men’s Basketball Tournament.
And it was a historic win not just for the Chiefs, but also for the rest of the league.
The reloaded Chiefs slayed defending champion Colegio de San Juan de Letran. They dealt the three-peat-seeking Knights their first loss in three years with a resounding 72-69 win.
It was a huge game for Arellano, especially for the rookie Cade Flores. And it will give them a huge morale booster for the next games to come.
“Yea for sure, especially getting told that it’s their first loss in the past three years,” said the Filipino-Australian big man, who got 18 points and nine rebounds in the game.
“It’s definitely a boost to our team’s morale. We gonna keep this high winning mentality and we gonna keep it as long as we can.”
The Chiefs were down by as big as 13 right near the end point of the third quarter, 55-42.
Despite losing their hopes, Arellano sparked a blistering 27-5 run to make a contest out of the game and, eventually, steal the win.
The 6-foot-4 banger played a key part in the fourth quarter run of the Chiefs. He anchored their defense, helping limit Letran to just a 5-of-26 shooting clip to close out the game.
“As a team we just kept hustling, and we just kept fighting.
“We just really wanted to win. I mean I did said it before coming to the game that we just wanna have fun and play as a team. I guess we did that the best way we could. It just ended up getting us a win today and I’m happy about it,” the former FEU Team B student-athlete said.
Flores also had a tough matchup this game against the Knights veteran big man and Louie Sangalang.
It was uber-physical under the rim, since both were exchanging celebrations back-and-forth all throughout the ball game.
It was one of the great matchups that we’ve seen so far this season, and Flores admitted that he learned a lot from this one.
“He definitely taught me some moves on how not to reach. I learned from him from the next games to come.”
