Knights, Tamaraws carve out tight victories

Far Eastern University finally won one, and Colegio de San Juan de Letran got back on track after the Tamaraws and the Knights posted huge wins in the Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup Monday.

The Tamaraws played as a cohesive unit to pull off an 86-78 win over Lyceum of the Philippines University, dealing the Pirates their first loss at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

Letran, meanwhile, needed to dig really deep before turning back a tough and game Emilio Aguinaldo College crew, 79-77.

“Everyone stepped up and played quality minutes,” said FEU head coach Olsen Racela. “But we need to work on our conditioning, that’s why I was shuffling my men pretty quickly.”

FEU, which rose to 1-2, knocked down 17-of-39 triples while the Pirates accounted for 8-18. Lyceum is now 3-1.

Rey Bienes led FEU with 14 points while Wendell Comboy, Alec Stockton, and Xyrus Torres each scored 13. Bienes and Comboy each had four triples while Torres hit three.

The Knights looked like they were on their way to a blowout win after leading, 52-35, going into the final 6:30 of the third period.

But the Generals mounted a rally behind Marwin Taywan, Jethro Mendoza, and JP Maguilano, cutting that lead down to four, 58-54.

Allen Mina led Letran, which improved to 4-1, with 17 points while Larry Muyang added 10.

The Generals dropped into a tie with the Tamaraws.

In other matches, the National University Bullpups rose to 2-0 after an 85-66 ripping of Jose Rizal University.

Gerry Abadiano led NU with 13 points while Kevin
Quiambao scored 10.

In another high school division game, the Mapua University Red Robins notched their first win in three outings after clipping the winless Adamson Baby Falcons, 73-68.

The streaking University of Perpetual Help Juniors Altas overhauled a six-point deficit in the third period to trounce University of Santo Tomas, 90-82.

Emman Galman topscored with 23 points for the Junior Altas with Edzel Galoy and John Escalante adding 17 and 14 points, respectively.