Cards rip Knights, join Stags, Altas, Lions at helm

Mapua got a boost from the returning Jeff Martin as it downed Letran College, 66-58, late Saturday to join three others on top of the Season 79 of the NCAA basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum.

Raymund Dula and Jefferson Gonzales led the scoring with 13 and 12 points, respectively, but it was Martin’s 11 markers and court presence that spelled victory for the Cardinals, who joined the San Sebastian Stags, the Perpetual Help Altas and the San Beda Red Lions on top.

Playing cool and calm this time, Martin, whose volcanic temper elicited him a ban the rest of last year’s season, was the adhesive that glued together Mapua, which never gave the Knights room to operate.

Action in the NCAA, meanwhile, shifts to high school action today with a heavy four-game bill at the Rizal Coliseum.

The San Beda Red Cubs open their title-retention bid against the Philippine Christian University Baby Dolphins in the third game at 3 p.m.

San Beda, however, will be without its starters of last year when it trounced the Letran Squires in two games for the high school cage crown.

Other matches pit the La Salle Greenies versus the Altalettes at 11:30 a.m., the Staglets against the Light Bombers at 1:30 p.m. and the Red Robins versus the Squires at 4:30.

The Red Cubs are also seeking to duplicate the Red Lions’ 73-65 bashing of the PCU Dolphins, last season’s Final Four qualifiers.

Like Mapua and San Beda, vastly improved University of Perpetual Help of Rizal and three-peat seeking San Sebastian hurdled their respective foes in the inaugurals.

Leaning on the endgame heroics of Marcel Cuenco, the Altas, who finished dead last a year ago with a 1-13 record, walloped the St. Benilde Blazers, 76-69, while the Stags banked on an all-veteran cast to turn back the Jose Rizal Bombers, 81-77.