Bombers trip Altas; Cards edge Knights

MANILA, Philippines - Jose Rizal leaned on the wondrous shooting of Nate Matute and all-around effort of backup guard Alex Almario as it survived Perpetual Help minus its top gun, 66-55, yesterday to keep its hold of third place in the 86th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.

Riding the momentum of a career best 22-point performance in a 76-60 win over the Letran Knights Friday, Matute fired all his 15 points from the three-point area as the Bombers nailed their eighth win in 10 starts.

Almario, for his part, had 10 points, a career best six assists and five rebounds to help fill in the void left by absent starting guard JR Bulangis (tonsillitis) and Cameroonian John Njei (disciplinary action).

It also pushed the JRU five closer to pacesetting San Beda (9-0) and defending champion San Sebastian (8-2).

Despite the win, Jose Rizal coach Vergel Meneses rued the erratic play of the Bombers, turning the ball 30 times with Perpetual staying in the game by scoring 31 points from these turnovers.

“We’re throwing the ball a lot of times, it will be hard to keep winning if we keep on doing these,” said Meneses, who is gearing for an interesting showdown with the Stags on Sept. 1.

George Allen and Jet Vidal, both Philippine Christian U transferees, paced the Altas with 14 points apiece although the Las Pinas-based school missed the usual numbers from Arnold Danganan, its leading scorer with an average of 14.6 a game who served a one-game suspension due to a pair of flagrant fouls he incurred in the Altas’ losing stand against St. Benilde.

Perpetual Help thus fell to its ninth straight defeat in as many outings.

 In the other game, Mapua relied on Erwin Cornejo and Mark Acosta in the stretch as it rallied from a 16-point deficit and pulled off a 63-60 squeaker over Letran, gaining full two-game distance from No. 5 Arellano U (4-5) in the race for the Final Four berth.

Cornejo erupted for 11 of his game-high 18 points while Acosta poured in seven of his 11 in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals nailed their sixth win against four losses.

Acosta buried a triple and canned a pair of charities all in the final 15.4 seconds to cap Mapua’s amazing fightback in the duel between Intramuros neighbors.

“It was a sweet win but it was tough, the boys just didn’t give up,” said Mapua coach Chito Victolero.

In juniors’ action, Perpetual Help drew strength from the 26-point effort of RP youth standout Joshua Alolino as it turned back a pesky Jose Rizal side, 76-69, to remain at second place with a 7-2 card behind San Beda (8-1).

Letran, for its part, stretched its amazing streak to seven with an 86-74 triumph over Mapua to improve to 7-3, which is good for solo third spot.

The Light Bombers and the Red Robins fell to 6-4 and 5-5 cards, respectively.