COACH Bonnie Tan of defending two-time champion Letran can now sleep well.
Boosted by a fiery third quarter breakaway, the Knights turned back the San Sebastian College Golden Stags yesterday 77-69 to return to their winning ways in the 98th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan.
King Caralipio notched 13 points and hauled down eight rebounds for Letran, while Louie Sangalang, back after a two-game suspension, chipped in 11 markers and eight boards.
Rafael Go, Kobe Monje, and another comebacking player from a two-match ban in Brent Paraiso added 11, 10, and 10 points, respectively, for the Knights, who redeemed themselves from two straight losses, counting a 75-82 setback to Lyceum four days ago, and improved to 4-3.
San Sebastian failed to recover from a 57-61 defeat to Perpetual Help last Saturday and slipped to 2-4.
“It’s a big win coming from the back-to-back losses. Sa lahat naman ng coaches na naka-experience ng mga talo, naka-recover tayo sa isang magandang game,” Tan said.
“Talagang nakaka-proud, kumbaga masaya and nakakagaan ng pakiramdam,” he added.
In the other game, College of St. Benilde downed a slumping Mapua University 73-64 for its third straight win and the solo lead.
Miggy Corteza tallied 17 points and grabbed four rebounds for the Blazers, while Migs Oczon added 14 markers on four triples, on top of eight boards and a feed.
Ladis Lepalam also had 10 and five as CSB scored a fitting follow-up to a 73-61 triumph over Emilio Aguinaldo College last Saturday and rose to 6-1.
The Cardinals reeled to their eight straight loss, counting a 59-64 defeat to Arellano University four days ago for a lowly 0-8 mark.
Letran enjoyed a 38-31 lead at the half and erected a 56-48 bubble on a Tommy Olivario trey with 2:39 to go in the third before settling for a 58-44 edge heading into the payoff period.
The Stags whittled the deficit to 52-58 on a Kenneth Villapando three-point play at the 8:15 mark of the fourth but the Knights simply refused to falter down the stretch.
Raymart Escobido paced San Sebastian with 18 points and three rebounds, while Romel Calahat had 17 markers.
“Very disappointing (endgame). You wanna give some guys the chance to play, chance to bounce back and they didn’t respect the way we should be playing, they don’t play the right play and there we almost lost this game,” Blazers tactician Charles Tiu said.
