Photo from NCAA
MANILA, Philippines—Jose Rizal University escaped with a hard-earned 74-68 win in a dogfight with the College of St. Benilde to nail its first victory in NCAA Season 97 on Tuesday at the La Salle Greenhills gym.
JL Delos Santos dropped 19 points and had 11 rebounds for the Heavy Bombers, who finally reversed a losing trend after six games.
“This is really big for us. We saw that we’re capable of finishing games after all. The past few games our problem has been finishing games. They showed character and they can finish every possession,” said JRU coach Louie Gonzales.
The Blazers, however, saw their four-match streak come to an end and fell to 4-2 triggered by a maze of errors and the absence of pivotman Will Gozum at crunch time.
Gozum’s incursions gave the Blazers their first taste of the lead at the turn after falling by as many as nine points, but a hurting right foot forced the reliable bigman to ride the bench the rest of the way.
Also contributing heavily for the Bombers are Jason Celis and Marwin Dionisio as well as RJ Arenal and EJ Agbong, who exploited the donut hole defense of the Blazers.
The Heavy Bombers must win as many games as possible in their last three assignments against the San Sebastian College Stags, defending champion Letran Knights and the Arellano Chiefs for a fighting chance in the playoffs.