Knights stay perfect, turn back Chiefs

MANILA, Philippines - Letran stayed focused  and kept its unbeaten record in the 89th NCAA basketball tournament with a 67-57 victory over Arellano U at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

Behind the hot hands of Mark Cruz and on the team’s suffocating defense, the Knights made a key run in the third quarter and went on to nail a sixth straight win.

Taking extra load on the absence of Franz Dysam,  who figured in an ambush shooting that claimed the life of her live-in girlfriend last week, Cruz rose to the challenge and top-scored for the team with 25 points as the Knights dealt the Chiefs a fourth loss against two wins.

Raymond Almazan, the early pacesetter in the MVP statistical race, made his presence felt on the defensive end, plucking a game-high 17 rebounds and added seven points with five in the last five minutes.

The Knights are now on their longest run since also racking up six straight wins five years ago – the year they went straight to the finals only to get beaten by then three-peat champs San Beda Red Lions.

At 6-0, Letran is now a full game in front of San Beda and Perpetual Help which share second place at 5-1.

“We’re not thinking of what happened to Franz (Dysam). We’re just focused on what we wanted to happen in the game,” Letran coach Caloy Garcia.

Garcia, however, said they do say prayers for Dysam and his girlfriend who died in the shooting incident.

“We had a moment of silence and a prayer before the game. We wore a white wrist band also (in tribute to our fallen player),” said Garcia.

Third stringer Donald Gumaru top-scored with 10 points for the Chiefs while their key players were shackled down by the Letran defense.

“This game is really for Franz Dysam, we offer this game to him,” said Cruz, who buried five of the 10 triples he attempted.

In the other game, St. Benilde ended its five-game misery with a heart-stopping 75-69 win over Lyceum.

The Blazers, who lost their first five outings via an average losing margin of 1.40 points a game, nailed their first win in six starts while the Pirates fell to 2-4.