Games today
12 noon – Jose Rizal vs Letran (Jrs/Srs)
4 p.m. – St. Benilde vs EAC (Srs/Jrs)
MANILA, Philippines - Jose Rizal U hopes to sustain its impressive run in the first round as it collides with Letran while College of St. Benilde tries to keep its place inside the magic four against Emilio Aguinaldo today in the 90th NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.
The Bombers racked up four straight victories to close out their first round campaign, finding themselves at No. 3 with a 6-3 mark, just a couple of games behind the league-leading San Beda Lions and Arellano U Chiefs, with identical 8-2 slates.
Philip Paniamogan, who averaged 18 points in the first round, including three triples, will be the marked man for the Bombers who will be facing a struggling Letran squad needing to pile up wins to bounce back into contention after a woeful 3-6 start.
Only Perpetual Help’s Juneric Baloria and San Sebastian’s Jaymar Perez have better with norms of 22.22 and 18.30 points, respectively.
Paniamogan, a proud son of Cagayan de Oro, is ready for the challenge.
“Coach (Vergel Meneses) told me to just be resilient and intelligent in picking my shots, which I’m planning to do against Letran,” said Paniamogan in Pilipino, third in the scoring sheet behind Perpetual Help’s Juneric Baloria (22.22 points) and San Sebastian’s Jaymar Perez (18.30 points).
The Bombers trampled the Knights, 69-60, in their first round meeting last July 14 but the latter hopes to ride on the momentum of their 64-53 reversal over the favored Red Lions last week.
“We all know that Letran is a tough team regardless of its current record,” said Meneses.
St. Benilde, currently tied with idle Perpetual Help at No. 4 on 5-4 cards, will be pinning its hopes on the troika of Mark Romero, Juan Paolo Taha and Jonathan Grey when it takes on EAC (3-6) at 4 p.m.
Romero, Taha and Grey have averaged a combined 42 points in the team’s first nine games, or two-thirds of the Blazers’ average per-game production.
“They’re the leaders of this team, we will not be where we are right now if not for them,” said St. Benilde mentor Gabby Velasco.