MANILA, Philippines - Jose Rizal University continued its surge as it waylaid a Yousef Taha-less Mapua, 78-64, to firm up its Final Four bid while booting the Cardinals out of the semis race in the 87th NCAA men’s basketball tourney yesterday at the Arena.
Alex Almario (17) led a balanced scoring attack for the Bombers who stormed to their fifth straight victory for 8-9 overall, moving into the threshold of grabbing the fourth and last berth in the semis.
JRU is disputing the last Final Four slot with idle Lyceum (6-10) and the Bombers could catch the last ticket if they beat also-ran Emilio Aguinaldo College on Monday or get a free pass much earlier if the Pirates lose to league-leading San Sebastian tomorrow.
“We have to win against EAC no matter what. We don’t want to think about Lyceum, we just have to take care of our own business,” said JRU coach Vergel Meneses, whose wards were practically written off with a 3-9 start before they climbed up the standings.
“At first they (Bombers) couldn’t handle my intense style of coaching; they wouldn’t want me to shout at them. So I eased up and looked what happened to us? Now they’ve realized that I was right, that I was only shouting to wake them up, not to put them down,” said Meneses.
Adhering to Meneses’ philosophy of ball movement, the Bombers made good execution on offense, also drawing double figures from Raycon Kabigting (13), Byron Villarias (12) and Nat Matute (12) with Ralph Monserat coming off the bench to fire nine. JRU dished out 17 assists, too.
“We need to outrun them (Mapua) because they are bigger than us,” said Meneses, whose crew scored 17 transition points. “We also did well on our man-to-man press and we were quite lucky that Taha didn’t play and give us problem today. But we were ready even if he played.”
The Cardinals, who suspended the 6-7 Taha for one week due to disciplinary reasons, lost five of their last six games to finish with 7-11. Mapua, one of the pre-tourney favorites, dropped out of the semis picture for the second time in three years.
“We were inconsistent throughout the season,” said MIT coach Chito Victolero, whose team gave a good account of itself in the summer league.