Mapua University avenged its first round defeat, opening the second round with a bang after escaping Lyceum of the Philippines University, 62-59 on Sunday in the NCAA Season 98 Seniors Basketball Tournament at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City.
It was a long-awaited revenge game for the Cardinals after absorbing a 67-76 defeat from the Pirates a month ago.
With 2:34 left in the game, all knotted at 55, Pao Hernandez gave the Cardinals their first lead in the payoff period after an off-the-glass one-hander before splitting his free throws at 1:34 to give them a three-point, 58-55 advantage.
Right at the 32-second mark, Warren Bonifacio knocked down an elbow jumper to boost their lead to five, 60-55.
Mclaude Guadania stopped the drought after hitting a triple to cut the deficit to just two, but JJ Pido calmly sank both his freebies to make it 62-58 with 25 seconds left.
Coming off an inbound play, Guadania tried to make it two in a row but missed his three, Valdez also launched his own triple but went back iron as Mapua stunned the Pirates.
“Syempre, masayang masaya. Proud ako sa kanila. And sabi nga, paulit-ulit kami eh. Sumunod don sa gameplan. Mag-stick kami sa pinapractice namin, especially sa execution sa fourth quarter. Ayun naman, nag-response naman sila,” said CSB head coach Randy Alcantara.
Four Cardinals finished in double figures led by Pido with 11 points, two assists, and a steal. Warren Bonifacio had an impressive double-double of 10 markers, and 14 boards; while Adrian Nocum and Juaqui Garcia also had 10 a piece.
For the Pirates, only Guadania finished double digits with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting, together with three dimes and three rebounds.
The Cardinals made it back-to-back wins (2-8), while the Pirates got its third loss, now with 7-3.
Both will be back on Wednesday with Mapua taking on College of St. Benilde (7-1), 12 NN. Lyceum will look to bounce back at the expense of Emilio Aguinaldo College (0-9) at 3 PM.
The Scores:
Mapua 62 — Pido 11, Nocum 10, Bonifacio 10, Garcia 10, Hernandez 7, Mercado 4, Soriano 4, Cuenco 2, Parinas 2, Agustin 2, Salenga 0, Igliane 0, Lacap 0.
Lyceum 59 — Guadana 15, Larupay 8, Umali 7, Bravo 6, Cunanan 6, Barba 4, Navarro 4, Montano 4, Villegas 3, Valdez 2, Penafiel 0, Omandac 0.
Quarterscores: 12-18, 30-29, 42-48, 62-59.
