NCAA: Altas near Final Four, pound Generals

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

University of Perpetual Help moved closer to a Final Four berth after an 81-67 romp of Emilio Aguinaldo College in the NCAA Season 94 men’s basketball tournament Tuesday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Kim Aurin came off the bench and set a career-high 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field that went with five rebounds and three assists while Prince Eze posted a double-double of 14 points and 16 rebounds with two blocks to boot for the Altas, who rolled to their sixth consecutive win.

“We struggled a bit in the first half. The boys were a bit tight because they wanted to build a big lead right away,” said Perpetual Help head coach Frankie Lim, whose team only needs a split in its last two games to clinch a Final Four slot.

“Fortunately, they settled down and had a strong third quarter. We had a good flow in our offense,” Lim added.

Hamadou Laminou led the Generals with 17 points and eight rebounds before he inadvertently got kneed on the back of his head by Perpetual Help’s Jerome Pasia and was stretchered off with 22.6 seconds left in the third quarter. Pasia got ejected after being slapped with a disqualifying foul.

The Altas pulled away from a close first half after outscoring the Generals, 24-14, in the third quarter.

“We made a lot of stops and we transformed it to fastbreak points in the second half. Easy baskets, easy layups were our prize for making stops.”