RANGED against the gritty Lyceum Pirates, College of St. Benilde coach Charles Tiu simply let his charges figure it out in the pivotal final canto. The Blazers rewarded his trust yesterday.
Bolstered by a big fourth quarter breakaway, CSB smothered Lyceum 86-69 to launch its title bid on a high in the 98th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan.
Robi Nayve wound up with a game-high 18 points spiked by four three-pointers, to go with five rebounds, and two assists for the Blazers, while new addition Migs Oczon chipped in 13 markers, two boards, and four dimes.
Will Gozum and JC Cullar also had 12 points each for CSB.
In the other game, Perpetual Help ripped Jose Rizal University 84-60 for its first win.
Pint-sized guard Joey Barcuma provided the spark the Altas sorely missed early on and fired a career-best 22 points on a near perfect 10-of-11 shooting that included two three-pointers.
Jielo Razon also added 13 markers, seven rebounds, and two assists for Perpetual, while Mark Omega had 13 and nine.
“Give credit to Lyceum. They also played really well. Renzo Navarro made big plays for them, and we were just throwing the ball way too much. It’s a bit frustrating to watch and I couldn’t understand why we were doing that but siyempre a win is a win. Bumawi naman sila,” Tiu said.
“They pulled away in the fourth quarter and that’s all on them. They all made the plays that we needed for us to win and I’m happy they were able to figure it out on their own,” he added.
After taking a 45-40 lead at the half and a 58-55 cushion heading into the payoff period, the Taft-based five unleashed a crippling 13-6 blitz capped by two free throws by Nayve that made it 71-60 with 5:38 remaining.
Two freebies by Joshua Cajucom stretched the difference to as much as 86-69, only 23.6 ticks left that also pegged the final count.
JM Bravo paced the Pirates with 12 points and five caroms, while Renzo Navarro and Shawn Umali contributed 11 and 10 markers, respectively.
“Before going to this game, sabi namin this is our definition of our season 98. Baka nag-sink in iyong pressure sa kanila kaya flat start kami,” Altas tactician Myk Saguiguit said. “Pero pagpasok ng dugout, sabi ko tama na round robin natin. Trabaho na tayo.”
Perpetual trailed 12-21 in the first quarter but battled back behind the 5-foot-5 Barcuma and grabbed a 37-36 buffer at the break.
The Altas outgunned the Heavy Bombers 28-15 in the third to enjoy a 65-51 edge going into the fourth period.
Perpetual met little resistance from a JRU side that faded from there and took an 84-58 advantage on a Marcus Nitura layup, only 1:09 to go.
Jonathan Medina was the lone bright spot for the Bombers with 15 points and six rebounds.
