Powerhouse Bulldogs, Tams roll to No 4

Manila, Philippines - National University and Far Eastern University continued to dish fine form in the 2011 Filoil Flying V Hanes Pre-season Premier Cup, beating their respective rivals and storming to their fourth straight victories at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

The amazing Bulldogs held on to defeat Lyceum of the Philippines University, 77-70, and seize the solo lead in Group A while the rampaging Tamaraws steamrolled Emilio Aguinaldo College, 67-51, to remain on top of the Group B heap.

Sophomore Glenn Khobuntin, who missed NU’s first two games due to sore eyes, provided the inside muscle and pumped in 22 points, including 15 in the last two quarters that keyed the Bulldogs’ victory in a game that was close throughout.

Facing a 39-45 deficit early in the third, the Bulldogs shifted to playing “small” to better match up with the Pirates and employed their pressure defense to unleash a 17-7 blast that put them ahead at the end of the penultimate period, 56-52.

Jose Rizal U spoiled the 28-point explosion of College of St. Benilde’s Carlo Lastimosa as it hacked out a 101-96 overtime win for its second straight win after an opening game setback.

Raycon Kabigting scored on a drive-in and canned two free throws in extension as the Bombers completed their fightback from 14 points down. The Blazers dropped to 0-2.

A 17-9 salvo touched off by Gelo Alolino’s triple and capped by Khobuntin’s spin move gave NU its biggest lead at 73-61, 3:19 left in the contest.

“We really had a hard time playing a small team; most of them played outside and shoot the trey. So we made the adjustment in the second half to go small, too,” said NU coach Eric Altamirano. “And then we made it a point to put more emphasis on our pressure (defense), make it hard for them to bring the ball down, and I think our defense created shots for us in the second half.”

Under the circumstances, 6-foot-4 forward Khobuntin manned the slot for NU and delivered big-time with a 9-of-10 field goal shooting.

“We actually played him at center today and he responded very well; he gave us the inside game that we needed,” said Altamirano.

Denice Villamor added 10 points and eight rebounds while Bobby Ray Parks had nine points and eight assits for NU. Floricel Guevarra topscored for LPU (0-3) with 20.

The Tamaraws raced ahead to a 20-8 first quarter lead and played without let up the rest of the way. 

“That’s what we really need to develop - killer’s instinct. We should learn to play hard consistently regardless of who we’re facing, even if it’s our mothers, and not get overconfident and complacent,” said FEU coach Bert Flores, whose wards outrebounded the Generals by a whopping 20 boards, their defensive rebounds alone (38) eclipsing EAC’s total (35).

Terrence Romeo punched in 14 points along with two blocks for FEU, the only unbeaten team in Group B. Cameroonian forward Hippolyte Noundou added a double-double (11 points 10 rebounds) and JR Cawaling had 10 markers and six assists.

EAC (1-2) drew 18 points and three assists from Claude Gubo and nine markers from Franz Chiong.