INQUIRER Sports

PLAYING AGAINST THE NCAA’S top team in an elimination-round game that took a championship atmosphere, San Beda’s Nigerian center Sam Ekwe rediscovered his dominant form.

Ekwe’s hands were all over the defending champion Red Lions’ 71-67 victory over Letran Wednesday in the last game of the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

His stat-line -- 25 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks -- made him the hands-down choice for the NCAA Press Corps player of the week.

What made Ekwe’s feat more remarkable was the fact that his monster performance came just a week after his wrong uniform cost the Lions their 71-54 win over St. Benilde.

“I don’t dwell in the past, we just have to think of the past as a learning experience,” said the 6-foot-9 center from Lagos, Nigeria, the 2006 league MVP and Rookie of the Year. “You just have to believe that your shots will go in, that’s why I made all those shots.”

Ekwe made a wide array of mid-range jumpers and easy lay-ups that helped snuffed the challenge out of the Knights, who came into the game with a pristine 6-0 record.

His most important basket—a jumper from the free throw line off a nifty pass from Pong Escobal with 59.4 seconds left—gave the Lions breathing room at 70-65, after the Knights came back from a 19-point deficit.

“We promised each other in the team not to lose anymore,” added Ekwe, who played his best offensive game since erupting for 26 points against Perpetual Help last season.

The win was San Beda’s fifth in seven games, earning the Lions a tie at second with Jose Rizal University, whose main man James Sena was runner-up to Ekwe for this week’s honor.

The 6-foot-6 Sena, a 19-year-old four-year league veteran, emerged as another candidate after he poured 14 points including the game-winning lay-up in a 60-58 squeaker over Philippine Christian University.