NCAA: Blazers stun Chiefs, 70-64

Playing with an inferior frontline, College of St. Benilde relied on its speed and outside shooting to surprise Arellano, 70-64, for a strong start in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan. The Blazers, who finished seventh last season, got the much-needed lift from former RP U-18 team member Mark de Guzman, Carlo Lastimosa and lanky Jan Tan to stun the fancied Chiefs. De Guzman finished with 14 points, five rebounds and nine assists while Lastimosa scored all of his 13 points in the second half. Tan, meanwhile, had a double-double performance with 12 points and 10 rebounds. St Benilde won its fourth consecutive opening-day match dating back 2007, two of them came from coach Richard del Rosario. "The guys have a lot of energy. I feel this is a more-talented team compared to my team last season. But this is a young team, so the players have the tendency to commit mistakes. I'm hoping they would mature as the season goes on," said Del Rosario. The Blazers squandered a 47-37 lead midway the third quarter as Isiah Ciriacruz hit back-to-back triples to cap a 13-3 run and knot the count at 50-all. But the Taft-based cagers answered back by hitting three consecutive treys -- the first from RJ Argamino, second from Ralph Nayve and third from De Guzman – as the Blazers got their second wind and another sizeable lead, 59-50, with less than two minutes in the third. The Chiefs, who beat the Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals last June 27, made a last-ditch stand of a rally when Jerald Lapuz hit five straight points to pull his team to within 64-66 with 4:10 to go. But Lastimosa scored on an alley-hoop play - a play similar to the one being done by his uncle, cage great Jojo Lastimosa, during his heydays in the PBA. That set up a strong finish for St. Benilde, which kept Arellano grounded and without a basket the rest of the way. The Blazers hit nine three-pointers while grabbing 38 rebounds, three more than the Chiefs. "We switched to a zone defense because they have a lot of slashers, so good thing we were able to execute defensively, " said Del Rosario. But the match had its ugly ending. With only four seconds left and the game already decided, De Guzman hit Lapuz on the face with the basketball, creating a near altercation. The St. Benilde cager was assessed with a technical foul. Lapuz finished with 16 points and five rebounds while Celada added 13 points, four rebounds and three assists. - RCJ, GMANews.TV