IT seems like Letran has finally steadied its course after seeing its captain grounded two weeks ago.
The Knights made it two in a row and eked out their most convincing win in the NCAA Season 102 men’s basketball tournament yet by taking down the College of St. Benilde Blazers 83-72 on Tuesday at the Filoil Center in San Juan.
Denzil Sison-Walker powered a 15-3 run to close out the first quarter to tow the Knights to a 22-11 lead and never looked back in their last cross-group assignment of the tournament, improving to 6-3 for a provasional top spot in Group B to come out of the crossover with their heads above water despite losing Titing Manalii to a knee injury.
"I'm happy but I'm not that satisfied," Letran head coach Allen Ricardo said.
"Sinabi ko rin naman sa kanila this week na para dumali yung basketball natin, we have to start with our defense and everything will be easy from there," he added.
"Ito yung resulta. They're enjoying the game, playing defense and running on fastbreaks, transitions. I'm trying to keep things simple for them."
After that late first quarter run which had the Knights taking an 11-point lead, the boys of Ricardo never looked back — leading by as many as 24 points, 77-53, after a Kevin Santos dunk before cruising to the win.
That high point may also be Letran's only low point of the night as Santos was subsequently ejected for getting his second technical of the game for taunting. He'll automatically miss Letran's next game against San Sebastian.
Nonetheless, everything that made the Knights look so good in their early run in the conference were in full display in the blowout win as they forced 18 turnovers and converted those into 21 points.
They were sharing the rock better now, with 21 assists to their 31 made field goals while also shooting a near 50 percent clip for the game.
Sison-Walker led the Knights with 21 points on a 70-percent clip, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Justin Cargo continued his two-way brilliance for the Knights, finishing with 13 points and five steals.
The bigs of Letran also went to work, with Aaron Buensalida chipping in 13 points while Santos added 10 before being ejected.
SJ Moore and Jhomel Ancheta each had 12 points apiece for Benilde which dropped its second consecutive game to fall to 6-3.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
