NCAA: Benilde beats Lyceum in battle for third

MANILA, Philippines—Robi Nayve and Miguel Corteza saved their best for last as College of St. Benilde settled for third place with a 93-83 win over Lyceum on Sunday in NCAA Season 99 at Mall of Asia Arena.

Nayve bounced back for the Blazers after a subpar Final Four outing with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists while Joshua Cajucom and Miguel Corteza finished with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

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Will Gozum, the graduating Season 98 MVP, gave way to his other teammates by playing only 11 minutes in the victory.

 “We’ll take it, we would have been fourth under normal circumstances,” said CSB coach Charles Tiu. In this game, CSB has officially bid goodbye to its senior players—Nayve, Corteza, Will Gozum and Miguel Oczon, among them. “We have a lot of recruits, seven guys out officially, six seniors and Oczon,” said Tiu. “At least nine guys are coming in that can compete for a spot in the team. I guess it’s a better problem to have than no player. It’s a completely different team, I feel I’m starting from scratch,” he added.

Over at the Lyceum side, the unsung heroes of Gilbert Malabanan stepped up to make up for Enoch Valdez’s absence.

Valdez, who is now with the NLEX Road Warriors in the PBA, gave way to the other Pirates who only played minimal minutes over the season.

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Mclaude Guadaña top scored for Lyceum with 16 points while Alvin Peñafiel finished with 15 points in only 21 minutes of action.

Lyceum, the third seed entering the Final Four, settled for fourth place.

The scores:

CSB 93- Nayve 18, Cajucom 15, Corteza 14, Marasigan 8, Carlos 7, Gozum 7, Sangco 6, Marcos 5, Morales 4, Lepalam 4, Arciaga 2, Jarque 2, Turco 1, Mara 0, Jalalon 0  LPU 83- Guadana 16, Penafiel 15, Montano 9, Umali 8, Barba 8, Cunanan 7, Culanay 6, Versoza 5, Aviles 4, Moralejo 3, Saure 2, Villegas 0  Quarterscores: 24-22; 43-41; 71-56; 93-83