Charity case

Instead of wallowing in the gloom of having an elimination round sweep yanked from under their feet, Lyceum’s Pirates decided to spend time doing charity work.

By the time they got back to the basketball court, they were back in business.

Lyceum crushed a listless Arellano, 113-79, Thursday at Filoil Flying V Arena to move within a win of clinching a semifinal berth in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Jaycee Marcelino scored 21 points to lead six Lyceum players in double figures. Reigning MVP CJ Perez brought up the rear of that list with 10, but he was within sniffing distance of a triple double after also finishing with 10 rebounds and nine assists.

And just like that, the Pirates notched a 13th win in 14 outings.

“We might have lost that game (against Perpetual) but after that game we did charity with Little Brave Hearts, an institution that takes care of kids with Down syndrome,” said coach Topex Robinson. “As much as we have to cry about losing a game, these kids are fighting for their lives. There’s so much more to winning and losing basketball games.”

But unlike before when they had a game up on hard-chasing defending champion San Beda, the Pirates now only have a winner-over-the-other cushion over the Red Lions, who kept up the pressure with an 82-75 victory over San Sebastian in the other game.

San Beda now shares the same win-loss mark with  Lyceum (13-1) as both programs chart their course toward another possible championship showdown.

Arellano slipped to 4-9, half a game up on San Sebastian’s 4-10 card.

MJ Ayaay, Spencer Pretta, Raymar Caduyac and Jeff Santos also punched in double figures for Lyceum.

The Pirates were coming off an 83-81 loss to Perpetual Help courtesy of a last-gasp basket by Prince Eze that denied them a potential elimination-round sweep.

“This game was a big opportunity for us to get better and try to be better versions of ourselves and that was a good win for us,” said Robinson.  —CEDELF P. TUPAS