MARINERONG Pilipino-San Beda University taught newcomer Keanzel Basketball a neat lesson yesterday.
Leaning on a fiery start and a sustained charge, the Red Lions dismantled Keanzel Basketball 109-59 for their second straight win in the PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Mirroring its easy debut win, San Beda surged to a 62-39 halftime lead and was never threatened from thereon for a 50-point win and a 2-0 slate in its redemption bid after a runner-up finish behind EocOil-La Salle last season.
Led by NCAA finals MVP James Payosing with 18 points in only 13 minutes of play, all 15 players scored as Marinerong Pilipino-San Beda barely broke a sweat anew on the heels of a 92-59 win against Go Torakku-St. Clare in last week’s opening match.
Richi Calimag added 14 markers, five rebounds and four assists off the bench as fellow second-stringers Bryan Sajonia and Joe Celzo had 12 each in a relentless barrage for the Lions.
San Beda had a total of 74 bench points compared to 29 by Keanzel, which only shot 30 percent from the field and committed 20 errors.
The Lions, in contrast, had a 55-percent clip with massive gaps in rebounds, (53-33) and assists (34-11), while yielding only 12 turnovers.
“Like our last game, hindi pa namin kilala iyong kalaban nami so we had to do what needed to do better than our last game,” San Beda coach Yuri Escueta said. “Kailangan i-respeto iyong kalaban at siyempre, nasa D-League sila so hindi puwede i-take for granted.”
The Lions, who went on a 28-16 start before sizzling for 34 points in the second quarter, are now averaging a 41.5-point winning margin in their first two games to show they are keen on finally winning it all.
Marinero also finished runner-up in 2022 after the D-League marked its return from a long hiatus due to the pandemic before it was reinforced by San Beda last year but to no avail.
Keanzel, made up of the core from Mark Herrera’s AMA Online Education squad, was led by James Martinez’s 14 points.
