BETTER hop on the Jose Rizal University bandwagon, as its now getting filled up with the Filoil EcoOil Preseason Cup trophy headed to Kalentong.
The Heavy Bombers reigned supreme in the premiere preseason tournament for the first time after completing a clean sweep of San Beda, 74-67, in Game Two of the finals, Thursday at the Playtime Filoil Centre in San Juan.
It has been a statement week for JRU, which downed the NCAA champion Red Lions by 11 points in Game One before putting on an emphatic encore in the history-making, title-clinching win.
From down one early in the second half, Sean Salvador and Allan Laurenaria joined forces in a 15-5 blast that pushed JRU ahead, 49-38, at the 1:36 mark of the third quarter.
Aldous Torculas kept coming for San Beda late, but Lawrence Mangubat and Jay Garupil had the quick counters for the Heavy Bombers, who only lost one game in their championship push.
Watch out for JRU
JRU’s ascent was as impressive as it comes, as before blanking the kings of the ‘Grand Ol’ League,’ it booted out UAAP playoff team National U and NCAA runner-up Letran.
Then come the title series, they dominated the Red Lions who were coming off their own eliminations of UAAP finalists La Salle and University of the Philippines.
As he has done throughout, Tournament MVP Mangubat showed the way for the Heavy Bombers with 27 points built on six triples, while Chris Hubilla and Jahmir Eligado took care of the interior with a combined 18 markers and 17 rebounds.
"They embraced talaga yung role sa team namin. This is the way, I think, na magwo-work ang team, ang system," said coach Nani Epondulan.
Defense remained JRU's calling card in suffocating San Beda to just 36.2-percent shooting from the field. While they didn't do much better for their part at 39.4-percent, they made the most of their 21 offensive boards which were turned into 25 points.
Zed Etulle and Torculas fronted the effort for the Red Lions with 14 and 13 points, respectively. They sorely missed the contributions of first-year guard Dom Sarigumba, however, as he only had three points in the historic all-NCAA finals.
The Scores:
JRU 74 - Mangubat 27, Eligado 10, Laurenaria 9, Garupil 9, Hubilla 8, Salvador 5, Masiglat 3, Palis 2, Panapanaan 1, Garcia 0, Herrera 0
SAN BEDA 67 - Etulle 14, Torculas 13, Marcelo 11, Puno 8, Songcuya 7, Bonzalida 6, Hawkins 5, Sarigumba 3, Estacio 0, Calimag 0, Jamora 0, Ugaddan 0
Quarters: 14-13, 29-28, 52-40, 74-67
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