De La Salle University and College of St. Benilde (CSB) completed the first round of the NCAA 100 men’s basketball tournament as the league’s best squad.
Coming off a close defeat in their last outing, the Blazers dominated Jose Rizal University (JRU), 84-69, during their clash on Tuesday afternoon, October 8, in a rare NCAA gameday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Rookie playmaker Jhomel Ancheta paced the Taft-based team with 17 points, five rebounds, an assist, and a steal to push CSB to 7-2 after nine games, while Gab Cometa and Allen Liwag followed with 15 and 12, respectively.
Mark Sangco also had one of his best games in Season 100, contributing a 12-point, 10-rebound performance for the Blazers, who started the game hot en route to building a 53-27 cushion in the first half.
However, CSB head coach Charles Tiu remained unsatisfied, especially with their 18 turnovers after only tallying six in the first 20 minutes of action.
“Dami na naman naming turnovers in this game,” said Tiu, whose squad committed 27.5 errors in their past two games — 31 against San Sebastian College-Recoletos, and 24 versus Arellano University.
“Credit to JRU, they played much harder in the second half, but I thought we should have been a bit better in the second half,” he said of Benilde, who was even outscored 40-29 in the second half. “Not too happy with how the game ended for us.”
Also adding to their woes was the early exit of Tony Ynot, who suffered a left ankle injury 22 seconds into his entry in the first period off the bench.
Moving on to the second round, the Converge FiberXers assistant is challenging his team to level up their game more if they want to live up to their billing as one of, if not, the favorites to win it all this season.
Meanwhile, the Heavy Bombers, who fell to 3-6 in the standings, were led by Joshua Guiab who had a career-best 24 points on top of seven rebounds, three assists, and a steal.
Also standing out for the Louie Gonzales-coached squad were Marvin Raymundo and Joseph Pangilinan, who each scored 12. (ABS-CBN News)