Mapua comes to its senses to salvage Final Four bid

Mapua needed an earful from its head coach Atoy Co to come to its senses and beat an upset-minded College of St. Benilde side, 77-72, in the NCAA Season 91 men’s basketball tournament Tuesday at the Arena in San Juan.

Playing for a spot in the Final Four, the Cardinals overlooked the also-ran Blazers and nearly paid dearly for it.

“I’m not really happy with this win. They were complacent,” a distraught Co told reporters. “From the start, I told them already that we really have to play our game and then we have to play as a team, pero in the first two quarters everybody wanted to shoot.”

A loss to St. Benilde would’ve been costly for Mapua’s semifinals bid. Had the Blazers won, the Cardinals’ fate would’ve been out of their hands.

With the hard-fought victory, Mapua will only need to beat lowly Emilio Aguinaldo College on Friday to assure itself a playoff for the last semis berth.

“If we didn’t run halfway through the third quarter and at the start of the fourth quarter we would’ve lost,” Co said.

“And I’ve been telling them, we worked very hard to be in this position so don’t waste it.”

Allwell Oraeme played the entire game and recorded another double-double with 15 points and 23 rebounds to lead the Cardinals.

Mapua guard Darell Menina scored 10 of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter.

Fons Saavedra kept CSB in striking distance with his outside shooting en route to a 19-point performance built on five 3-pointers.

The Blazers wrapped up their season with a 5-13 record.