BY ABBY TORALBA
SAN Sebastian College pulled off a stunner, scoring a 72-59 victory over Jose Rizal University yesterday to snap a two-game mini-slump in the 99th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan.
Jessie Sumoda led the Golden Stags with 15 points, while Raymart Escobido and Alex Desoyo fired 12 markers apiece.
Romel Calahat also had 11 points along with eight rebounds for San Sebastian.
“I give credit sa players at sa mga coaches ko. Iyong scouting was done by the coaches and then the players, nag-respond, iyong zone defense namin was terrific, effective,” Stags coach John Kallos said.
“So, walang senior senior, talagang nagtrabaho silang lahat. So, iyon lang siguro iyong key points doon sa win namin,” he added.
Agem Miranda was the lone bright spot for the Heavy Bombers, who slipped to 4-2, with 15 points.
Later, Robi Nayve and Migs Oczon powered College of St. Benilde to an 86-80 win over Perpetual Help.
The duo of Nayve and Oczon shone with 20 and 19 points, respectively for the Blazers, who rose to 3-3.
Prince Carlos and Joshua Cajucom also combined for 25.
“We talked about the importance of this game, Perpetual being a Final Four contender in my opinion. We had a rough start so hopefully we can build on this winning streak and just take one game at a time,” CSB strategist Charles Tiu said.
“At least, we get a little bit of rest (in the next few days) because our schedule’s been very heavy. We probably played the most games already in the season. We’re happy that we got the win.”
Art Roque tallied a game-high 24 points for the Altas, who dropped to 1-4, while Christian Pagaran and Marcus Nitura combined for 31 markers.
