ST. BENILDE kept a stronghold of the second spot of Group B in the NCAA Season 101 after outlasting Letran, 80-74, at the Playtime Filoil Center in San Juan.
Even without Allen Liwag, the Blazers survived a huge second quarter from the Knights - turning to Ian Torres and their defense in the fourth to return to winning ways after falling to San Beda the last time out.
The win improved the Blazers to a 7-4 record, moving one game ahead of the now 6-5 Knights with two games remaining in the classification phase where the top two teams of each group will get a twice-to-beat advantage.
Toughing it out
The Knights proved pesky throughout the entire game, looking more than ready to correct their first Group B encounter with the Blazers as they roared back in the second quarter to end the half with a 50-48 lead.
However, the green-and-white had all the answers, as Torres stepped up in the second half, contributing 11 points in that stretch including a buzzer-beating heave to end the third that gave them the lead for good.
Benilde then turned to its defense in the final quarter, keeping Letran scoreless until halfway to hold onto the win.
Despite holding them off, Benilde’s turnovers once again hampered its play, as it committed thrice as many errors as Letran, 22-7.
“Horrible, that's why I was so upset in the first half,” head coach Charles Tiu lamented. “We had 14 in one half. And a lot of it were out of our carelessness.”
“You're not going to win too many games with 22 turnovers. So it's something we have to get better. It's been our Achilles' heel all season long.”
Torres finished with 15 points, leading the bench mob with Justine Sanchez, who had 14.
John Mowell Morales also had a perfect night for the Blazers, hitting all his five shots to finish with 13 points while Tony Ynot and Jhomel Ancheta chipped in 12 and 10 respectively.
Titing Manalili led the Knights with 16 points, five assists and five steals but the trend of the Knights losing when he's not an active distributor continued as Letran fell to 0-5 in the games where the Cebuano guard was limited to nine assists or below.
The scores:
ST. BENILDE 80 – Torres 15, Sanchez 14, Morales 13, Ynot 12, Ancheta 10, Umali 5, Celis 3, Gaspay 3, Eusebio 3, Cometa 2, Cajucom 0, Oli 0
LETRAN 74 – Manalili 16, Estrada 14, Buensalida 10, Roque 9, Omega 9, Santos 8, Gammad 7, Rosilio 1, Cuajao 0, Tapenio 0, Silorio 0, Yusi 0 , Montecillo 0
Quarters: 31-24, 48-50, 69-66, 80-74
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