MANILA – King Gurtiza knocked down two marginal free throws as Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals pulled off a 90-88 victory over Lyceum of the Philippines Pirates in the NCAA Season 100 men’s basketball on Sunday at the FilOil EcoOil Arena in San Juan.
With the score tied at 88-all with under a minute left in the game, Gurtiza broke the deadlock by connecting two of his three free throws after being fouled by Pirates’ Vincent Cunanan with 6.7 seconds left.
The Pirates still had a chance to steal the victory but Renz Villegas misfired on his three-point attempt from way outside, while the putback attempt of Cunanan was also a miss.
Gurtiza finished the match with 21 points, including five three-point conversions, to go with five rebounds, five assists, and one steal, while Paolo Bagay added 11 markers as the Generals improved to a 3-4 in the standings.
“This game is very vital for us, ang sabi ko nga sa mga players is they either sink or swim for us to stay afloat (in the standings),” said Generals head coach Jerson Cabiltes. “We need to win this game, and, luckily for us, we won the game.”
“We are not making our shots, our shooters were struggling, and we are also not making our open shots (in the second half), we just stayed composed to grind out this win,” he added.
John Barba finished with a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds, Gyle Montano added 14 markers, while Villegas and Simon Peñafiel contributed 12 and 11, respectively, as the Pirates dropped to 3-4.
Meanwhile, Mapua University Cardinals (5-2) nearly wasted a double-digit lead before holding off Jose Rizal University Heavy Bombers (2-5), 88-81. Clint Escamis led the way with 19 points, four rebounds, and three assists.
Leading by as many as 23 points at 42-19 in the second quarter, the Cardinals saw their lead cut to 10 points several times in the fourth quarter by a furious Heavy Bombers uprising.
Jeco Bancale, however, responded with timely inside connections followed by perimeter baskets from Escamis to stretch the lead to 88-75 before the Heavy Bombers capped off the match with six straight points./PN
