Hot Tams foil Pirates, nail 4th straight

Games tomorrow (The Arena)

10:45 a.m. – Adamson vs DLSU (womens) 

12:30 p.m. – National U vs HTC

2:15 p.m. – Perpetual vs SWU

4 p.m. – Letran vs Mapua

5:45 p.m. – Letran vs DLS-Zobel (juniors)

MANILA, Philippines - Far Eastern U sustained its hot start as it beat Lyceum, 78-71, yesterday to stretch its win streak to four while halting the Pirates’ own run at two in the FilOil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup at The Arena in San Juan.

Mike Tolomia fired 22 points to go with five rebounds and three assists while Mac Belo tallied 12 markers and grabbed nine boards to spearhead the red-hot Tams to the solo lead in Seniors Group B action.

The Pirates, who played catch up majority of the way, slid to 1-2.

“Lyceum is a very tough team. I actually like their level of physicality. It’s something we want to emulate,” said FEU coach Nash Racela. “I think such physicality, aggressiveness is what we need if we want to go far this UAAP.”

Tolomia and Belo got support from Raymar Jose, who contributed nine markers and 14 boards and Roger Pogoy who chipped in eight points.

“Today I think we were better in sharing the basketball. But there were a lot of turnovers, too, and that’s something we want to address,” said Racela.

Southwestern U, meanwhile, kicked off its campaign on a high note, hacking out a vengeful win over Jose Rizal U, 72-68.

“Last week all the Cebuano teams lost to this team (JRU) so the pressure was on us to win not only for the school but also for Cebu,” SWU mentor Raul Alcoseba, referring to University of the Visayas and University of San Carlos which were both foiled by the Bombers.

SWU led erstwhile unbeaten JRU (2-1) by as many as 20 points.

“It’s a statement game for us, we really want to win this one. I’ll give it to the boys, they played very well,” Alcoseba said.

Landry Sanjo came away with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks while Jasper Parker contributed 12 markers, Mark Tallo tallied nine points, six boards, and nine dimes. – With Lance Adrian Agcaoili

The ccores:

First Game

FEU 78 – Tolomia 22, Belo 12, Jose 9, Pogoy 8, Escoto 6, Tamsi 5, Hargrove 4, Iñigo 4, Denila 2, Lee Yu 2, Ugsang 2, Delfinado 2, Cruz 0, Padilla 0, Belga 0.

LPU 71 – Mbida 15, Maconocido 15, Zamora 12, Gabayani 11, Baltazar 6, Bulawan 5, Ko 4, Azores 3, Taladua 0, Lesmores 0, Evangelista 0, Lacastesantos 0, Soliman 0.

Quarter Scores: 24-16, 43-31, 61-52, 78-71