SAN Sebastian College yesterday showed there is life even without star big man JM Calma.
Boosted by a furious third quarter breakaway, the Golden Stags pulled off a 60-51 victory over Arellano University to launch their campaign on a high in the 98th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan.
Ichie Altamirano showed the way for San Sebastian with 10 points, on top of four rebounds, and four assists, while Kenneth Villapando and Rhinwill Yambing combined for 18 markers.
The Chiefs, coming off a 63-58 win over Emilio Aguinaldo College in the opener four days ago, slipped to 1-1.
In the other game, San Beda University dismantled a suddenly struggling Emilio Aguinaldo College 85-56 to gift new tactician Yuri Escueta his first win.
James Kwekuteye fired 15 points on three three-pointers, grabbed six rebounds, and dished off five assists for the Red Lions, while Yukien Andrada chipped in 13 markers and eight caroms.
Tony Ynot also had 12 points for San Beda, which made up for a 55-66 defeat to Mapua University last Saturday and improved to 1-1.
Stags coach Egay Macaraya admitted his charges have big shoes to fill in with the departure of Calma due to graduation, but they stepped up, at least in their first game of the new season.
“Hindi naman namin mapapalitan si JM Calma but right now, iyong tatlong big men ko ay stepping up, with Jessie (Sumoda), Ammar (Cosari), and James (Una), at least napupunan namin iyong ginagawa ni JM,” Macaraya said.
“I think the guys just proved themselves na if we played defense, nandoon ang opensa namin. That’s our battle cry and motivation namin ngayon. I hope we can bring it to the other games,” he added.
With the count knotted at 27-all at the half, San Sebastian’s stingy defense hand cupped Arellano and took a 50-38 edge heading into the payoff period.
The Stags stretched the difference to as much as 57-38 on an Una three-pointer at the 5:39 mark of the fourth.
The Chiefs refused to lie down and die and went on a 13-0 blast capped by a Joshua Abastillas putback to trim the deficit to 51-57 with still 1:45 left but that proved to be too little, too late.
Axel Doromal paced Arellano with 15 points and three boards, while Cade Flores had 12 markers.
“It’s always nice to get your first win early in the season, especially coming off a loss. After we viewed the Mapua game, we focused already on the EAC game,” Escueta said.
“Hats off to them (Generals) also in the second half they came in to play, they went harder on us.”
After a 32-7 opening salvo, the Lions took their biggest lead at 53-12 on a Joshua Tagala trey at the 2:16 mark of the second canto.
San Beda hardly met resistance from EAC from there.
Joshua Tolentino scored 16 points for the Generals, while Kriss Gurtiza got 10.
