Cardinals rally past Knights to firm up NCAA semis bid

This one's for the books. Mapua completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in NCAA men's basketball history, rallying from 14 points down in the final three-and-a-half minutes and pulling off a gripping 63-60 triumph over Letran on Wednesday at The Arena in San Juan City.

Nearly given up for dead, the Cardinals fought back from a 44-58 deficit in the final 3:36 of regulation to upstage their neighboring rivals from Intramuros. The Cardinals held the Knights to only two points in that stretch, then unloaded 19 points anchored by Erwin Cornejo’s two triples. Cornejo’s treys triggered a big comeback by the Cardinals, who came to within 58-60 with 26 seconds left in the match. After a missed offensive thrust by the Knights, the Cardinals looked for the best possible option to tie the game. Cornejo missed a potential game-tying basket, but teammate Kenneth Ignacio grabbed the rebound, then kicked it out to Macky Acosta, who drained another backbreaking three-pointer, that put Mapua on the driver’s seat, 61-60, 15.4 seconds left. Letran had a chance to regain the lead, but Franz Dysam missed a lay up. Acosta grabbed the rebound with two seconds to play and was fouled in the process. He calmly sank both charities for the final tally and Mapua watched Jaypee Belencion misfiring a desperation trey. "It feels good to win in this kind of situation," said Mapua coach Chito Victolero. "I told them not to give up. They played their hearts out to win." The win enabled Mapua to snap back-to-back losses it suffered against Jose Rizal University and Arellano. The Cardinals improved their record to 6-4 for solo fourth. Cornejo finished with 18 points on 3-of-6 from downtown, while Acosta added 11 points, including the game-winning triple. The stunning loss had Letran absorbing its seventh defeat in 10 games. Kevin Alas had 13 points, but shot 5-of-21 from the field while Dysam added 10 points, but missed seven of his 12 shots from the charity stripe. "When Mapua was trapping, I think we were caught off guard, maybe that's why they came back," said Belencion, who scored nine points on 4-of-11 shooting. - RCJ, GMANews.TV