St. Benilde uses fourth quarter turnaround to stun FEU

MANILA, Philippines — Paolo Taha sparked a turnaround in the fourth as St. Benilde stunned Far Eastern University, 81-74, Friday in the 2013 Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup at the Arena in San Juan.

A triple from Taha, the Blazers’ main man for the coming NCAA season, with 3:55 to play gave St. Benilde the lead, 65-64, which it would never relinquish after playing catch up from the get-go.

Luis Sinco and Jonathan Grey, then, provided solid back up for Taha down the stretch as they alternated buckets to give St. Benilde a 76-66 edge.

Taha finished with 19 points for St. Benilde, Sinco and Fons Saavedra with 15 and 14 markers, respectively, while Grey had 10.

It was a 11-2 run for the Blazers in just two and half minutes which doomed the Tamaraws as misses from their main men – RR Garcia, Mark Belo and Mike Tolomia – compounded their shooting woes.

“There’s so much to be learned in this game. We were able to execute offensively and handle them defensively,” said head coach Gabby Velasco.

“This is a big win. I hope we can look forward positively in our NCAA. I hope this win inspires us,” Velasco added.

The victory tied St. Benilde with FEU, which had Terrence Romeo and injured Russel Escoto sitting on the bench in street clothes, in group A with a 3-4 slate.

Anthony Hargrove paced the Tamaraws with 18 points and nine rebounds but didn’t do much late in the game. RR Garcia added 14, including two triples in the winding seconds.

After limiting St. Benilde to just nine in the second quarter, FEU then allowed the Blazers to come away with 32 in the payoff period.