Manila, Philippines - National University made a key adjustment down the stretch to beat Arellano, 55-47, and notch its second straight win for the solo leadership in Group A in the 2011 Filoil Flying V Hanes Pre-Season Premier Cup at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.
Failing to contain the Chiefs’ 6’8 Sierra Leonean slotman Charles Mammie in the absence of their Cameroonian big man Emmanuel Mbe, the Bulldogs shifted to zone defense and gained the much-needed headway against AU.
Far Eastern U stormed to win No. 3 and took the solo lead in Group B with 77-65 victory over Mapua in the other game.
Throwing Cardinals off with their pressure defense, the Tams used a 19-3 run sparked by Terrence Romeo and Pippo Noundou to post a 71-61 lead going to the last 4:04.
Noundou dished out 17 points and 10 rebounds while Romeo had 16 points, two assists and two steals for FEU, which also drew solid games from Russel Escoto, Carl Cruz and Clarence Foronda with Aldrech Ramos sitting out the last half due to sprain.
Mapua (1-1), which blew a 58-48 edge in the third, was led by Allan Mangahas (18 points, five assists) and Fil-Palestinian Yousef Taja (15 points, 14 rebounds).
Meanwhile, Adamson bucked the 30-point explosion of University of the Philippines’ Mike Silungan as the Falcons thumped the Maroons, 65-57, to improve to 2-1 in Group B. UP slipped to 1-2.
Silungan canned six of his 10 tries from beyond the arc but his efforts were not enough to avert the Maroons’ second straight loss after winning their first assignment
Back-to-back triples by Denice Villamor and Bobby Ray Parks triggered a 14-2 blast in the final 7:02 that settled it for NU.
“It was an ugly game, both teams did not shoot very well,” said NU coach Eric Altamirano, whose wards only made 23 of 67 tries for 34 percent, the same shooting clip as the Chiefs (20-of-59).
“In the second half, we didn’t really have any player who can guard the big guy Mammie, he really asserted himself inside,” Altamirano said of the AU behemoth who finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks.
Because Mbe is on-leave from the team to attend to personal matters back home, NU had to make do with what they have on the floor.
“We could not contain him (Mammie) so we resorted to zone. Fortunately, when we played our zone in the last five minutes we were able to retain momentum, and we retook the lead,” he said.
Parks led the scoring parade for NU with 16 points along with eight boards, three assists and three steals, complemented by Cedrick Labing-isa’s 13 points.
Christian Palma added 10 for AU (0-3).
Lester Alvarez and Eric Camson presided over AdU’s offense with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Austin Manyara anchored the defense with 10 rebounds and six blocks and Jericho Cruz hounded Silungan in the final stretches.