MANILA – College of St. Benilde Blazers maintained its untarnished slate in the NCAA Season 98 men’s basketball via an 81-64 rout of University of Perpetual Help Altas on Tuesday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
Will Gozum came through with double-double 16 points and 12 rebounds to go with two blocks and two assists as the Blazers notched its third victory in as many games to stay on top in the standings.
Negrense Miggy Corteza added 15 points, seven boards and three blocks while Rob Nayve scored 12 points for College of St. Benilde, which had its best start in NCAA in years.
Clinging to a slim 33-32 lead after the first two quarters, the Blazers caught fire in the third quarter as they outscored the Altas, 32-10, to erect a 65-42 advantage and never looked back.
“We are happy to win. Sabi ko, tsamba tsamba minsan, but it’s nice to win. We are thankful. We thank the Lord for our victory,” said Blazers head coach Charles Tiu. “My goal naman with this team has been to improve every game, no matter where we play.”
“Hopefully, we learned our mistakes from the past. It feels nice to be winning but we cannot look at the record, hindi ba? It’s such a long season right now, you know anything can happen in the next few games,” he added.
Rey Barcuma paced Perpetual with 14 points, Kim Aurin had 13 points and Marcus Nitura added 12 points and five boards. The Altas suffered its second straight loss to drop to 1-2 slate.
Meanwhile, Lyceum of the Philippines Pirates zoomed to its third consecutive victory in four games after taking down season-host Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals (0-4), 74-67.
From a close exchange in the first two quarters, the Pirates created separation from the Generals in the third quarter en route to building its largest lead at 72-58 following back-to-back triples from Renzo Navarro and Mclaude Guadana.
Guadana and Alvin Pinafiel both tallied 12 points for the Pirates with the former adding three rebounds, two assists, and two steals; while the latter went perfect from the field with 4-of-4 together with a board. Navarro chipped in 10 points.
BOX SCORE:
CSB 81 – Gozum 16, Corteza 15, Nayve 12, Marcos 7, Flores 7, Oczon 6, Pasturan 6, Cullar 2, Sangco 2, Dimayuga 2, Cajucom 2, Davis 2, Mara 2, Carlos 0, Lepalam 0.
PERPETUAL HELP 64 – Barcuma 14, Aurin 13, Nitura 12, Flores 8, Abis 6, Omega 4, Martel 3, Egan 2, Razon 2, Ferreras 0, Cuevas 0, Roque 0.
Quarterscores: 13-17, 33-32, 65-42, 81-64./PN
