Knights, Chiefs gun for semis

MANILA, Philippines - Letran and Arellano U seek to remain at fourth place and in contention for a Final Four berth as the two take on Mapua and Angeles U Foundation, respectively, today in the 85th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Knights crushed the Emilio Aguinaldo Generals, 92-66,while the Chiefs smashed the St. Benilde Blazers, 82-72, Wednesday to keep their grip at No. 4 on 6-4 (win-loss) slates.

Letran squares off with Mapua at 4 p.m. while Arellano U clashes withy AUF at 2 p.m. with a victory pushing them closer to idle Jose Rizal, which is currently at No. 3 with an 8-2 record.

San Sebastian continues to lead the pack with an amazing streak of 11 straight victories while reigning three-peat champion San Beda is at No. 2 with a 9-1 card.

The Cardinals and the Great Danes, for their part, may just be out of it since the two occupy the bottom on identical 1-9 marks.

Both coaches Louie Alas of Letran and Junjie Ablan of Arellano were in agreement that they couldn’t take their opponents lightly.

“We’ve learned that anyone can beat anyone in this league, we couldn’t afford to be over confident,” said Alas, who steered the Muralla-based school to titles in 1998, 2003 and 2005.

“We have to respect all the teams we face, we can’t be complacent against anyone,” said Ablan, the youngest among the current batch of coaches at 30 years old.

The Knights are expected to draw strength anew from the Smart Gilas Pilipinas pair of RJ Jazul and Rey Guevarra, who spewed 21 points apiece in their recent triumph.

Arellano, for its part, would be pinning its hopes on bull-strong Giorgio Ciriacruz, who exploded with career highs 31 points and 17 rebounds that fanned his team’s Final Four hopes.