Blue Eagles, Archers collide in Filoil caging

MANILA, Philippines - Ateneo and La Salle clash today in a duel of the country’s fiercest collegiate rivals with the Eagles fancied over the Archers at resumption of action in the Filoil Flying V Pre-Season Invitational Cup at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

A full-house crowd is expected in the keenly awaited duel, which also features the debut of Dindo Pumaren as coach of the Taft-based squad against its archrival, which ruled the UAAP the last two years.

Still, Pumaren, who took over the coaching chores from elder brother Franz, said he’ll treat today’s game as any other game.

“Of course, I’m excited because this is my first time to coach against Ateneo,” said Pumaren. “But we’ll treat it like any other game. We’ll prepare hard and map out plays and go out there and try to win.”

Far Eastern U and Univ. of the East square off at 2 p.m. 

Meanwhile, Letran hacked out an 84-83 victory over Arellano U yesterday to even its card to 1-1 while dealing the Chiefs their second straight one-point loss in seniors play.

The tournament is presented by Mighty Bond Extreme, with major sponsors Total Phils. Corp., San Marino Corned Tuna, Accel, Filoil Gas Company, Flying V and Hanesbrands, the official outfitter, and also backed by BDO, Pagcor Sports, Jimms Coffee Mix, Bacchus Energy Drink, Adidas, Bayo, Kaspersky Isecure Networks, Zest Air, Monster Radio RX 93.1 and Pilipinas Sife.

Kevin Alas and Jamieson Cortes combined for the Knights’ last five points in the final 40 seconds to cap their fightback from 79-83 in a game that was close in the last three quarters.

Jonathan Belorio actually gave the Knights a four-point cushion at 76-73 but the Chiefs struck back behind Gerald Lapuz and Rocky Acidre to close within one with 3:29 to go in the game.

Arellano regained the lead at 1:31 on two foul shots by Isiah Ciriacruz for an 83-79 margin but back-to-back hits by Alas and a free throw by Cortes wrested the lead back for the Knights, who held on until the final buzzer.

Cortes scored a game-high 19 points and finished with six rebounds and one shot block as he led the Knights to their first win after dropping their opening game to La Salle.

Kevin Alas came away with 17 points, three rebounds and four steals for the Knights.

The Chiefs slid to 1-2, absorbing their second straight one-point setback after dropping a sorry 76-77 decision to Ateneo.

The Knights clamped down on defense to baffle the Chiefs in the second half as they took the lead at the end of the third, 63-59, after trailing by as many as eight points, 20-28, at the start of the second period. – With report from Koji Echeminada