ARELLANO and San Sebastian eye to join the early leaders on Friday as the two teams collide at the resumption of the NCAA Season 92 seniors basketball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
The Chiefs face the Stags at 12 noon at the start of the day’s tripleheader. Arellano and San Sebastian seek a share of first place with San Beda and Mapua, which won their first two games of the season.
Arellano coach Jerry Codinera is wary about the Stags after the Chiefs’ tight win over the same team in the Filoil Cup preseason tournament where they played without star player Jio Jalalon.
“Nahirapan kami last time sa San Sebastian. Fourth quarter lang gumanda laro namin. Very competitive sila. I’m sure they will do something special against us,” said Codinera.
San Sebastian counterpart Egay Macaraya played down the close loss to Arellano in the preseason owing to the absence of Jalalon.
“Jalalon was not there. Hopefully, makita namin kung saan kami nagkamali,” said Macaraya.
The Chiefs are fresh from an 83-78 win over Perpetual Help, while the Stags edged College of Saint Benilde, 54-49, last Sunday to open the season with similar 1-0 win-loss slates.
In other games, Letran hopes to follow its 76-72 victory over Emilio Aguinaldo College when it faces St. Benilde at 2 p.m., while winless squad Jose Rizal University and Perpetual Help battle at 4 p.m.
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