Blazers on the rise, streak to 3rd straight win

Games on Monday
(The Arena, San Juan)
4 p.m.- Lyceum vs San Sebastian
6 p.m.- St. Benilde vs Perpetual Help

MANILA, Philippines - St. Benilde continued its impressive resurgence as it walloped a hapless Mapua, 84-64, Saturday to post its third straight win that catapulted it from the bottom and into Final Four contention in the 89th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.

Unheralded Dexter Garcia, a 24-year-old sophomore who hails from Zamboanga City, came out of nowhere to lead his team with a career-best effort of 18 points he spiked with five rebounds and three assists to lead the Blazers to their third win in a row after dropping their first five games.

"He was huge today (yesterday), he made big shots for us," said St. Benilde coach Gabby Velasco referring to Garcia.

After controlling most of the tempo with its sleek running game, the Blazers found themselves in a quagmire in the second half after Darrel Dave Magsigay buried a triple to help the Cardinals close the gap, 57-60, early in the period.

But Garcia went on a seven-point splurge to spark the decisive run from there to help seal it for the suddenly white-hot team from Taft Ave.

The win is slowly putting the Blazers in a position of pulling off a Cinderella finish as they now won three straight games, the first two being at the expense of the Lyceum Pirates, 75-69, last July 25 and the second over the Arellano U Chiefs, 69-62, last Monday.

And it came right after blowing what could have been won games, dropping St. Benilde's first five outings with a losing margin of 1.4 points.

"I think those loses helped us to be tougher and every game, win or lose, we consider as a learning experience," said Velasco.

St. Benilde has now zoomed from being the league doormat to solo sixth spot behind Letran (7-1), reigning three-peat titlist San Beda (7-1), Perpetual Help (6-2), Jose Rizal (5-3) and San Sebastian (5-3).

The Atoy Co-mentored Cardinals fell to their seventh defeat and deeper down the standings.