Arellano survives Mapua to stay in 1st place tie with San Beda

MANILA, Philippines — League-leading Arellano needed to survive a last-minute rally by Mapua for a 82-79 win in the NCAA Season 90 men’s basketball tournament Monday at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

The Chiefs seemed well on its way to a win after they took a 74-65 lead with under three minutes left but pulled back their punches that allowed the Cardinals to creep back into the game – cutting the deficit to two, 74-72, with still 46.2 seconds left.

Arellano, which again tied San Beda in first place with a 9-2 record, hit its final six free throws in the final 18.5 ticks remaining that kept Mapua at bay.

Guard John Pinto led the way for the Chiefs with 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting from the field that went with three rebounds and three assists a day after getting selected by the GlobalPort Batang Pier in the 2014 PBA Rookie Draft.

“We relaxed at the offensive end and we were careless that’s why we committed a lot of turnovers,” Pinto pointed out.

“We’re at the top so we can’t afford to lose games we’re supposed to win,” Pinto said.

Jiovani Jalalon, the Chiefs steady spark off the bench, scored his team’s final four points – all at the free throw line – inside the final 12 seconds and ended up with 18 points on top of eight assists and four steals.

CJ Isit led the Cardinals’ blistering rally firing eight of his game-high 21 points in the last two minutes. His triple made it a one-point game with 5.2 seconds to go before Jalalon’s two freebies set the final tally.

Isit also collected eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals doing it all in a losing effort as Mapua fell to 1-10.