Altas defuse Blazers in OT, share second

Game Thursday

6 p.m. – Mapua vs EAC

MANILA, Philippines - Skipper Chris Elopre scored on a crucial lay up and picked up a clutch steal in the last two plays as Perpetual Help pulled off a 90-89 overtime victory over St. Benilde to tie San Beda at second in the 89th NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City last night.

Elopre, a 23-year-old senior Hotel and Restaurant Management student, caught a drop pass from Nigerian teammate Nosa Omorogbe for the go-ahead lay-in and then snatched an errant inbound pass by Mark Romero with 1.1 seconds left to pull the Altas abreast with the Lions at 7-2 (win-loss) behind the Letran Knights’ pacesetting 8-2 card.

It was another heartbreaker for the Blazers, who were on a three-game run and seconds away from scoring another win in regulation. The one-point loss was St. Benilde’s fourth in the season as the Blazers, who also had a pair of two-point defeats, dropped to 3-6.

Juneric Baloria exploded with 25 points, Omorogbe finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds and three assists, Harold Arboleda 19 points and 16 boards and Justin Alano also came up with 19 markers for the Altas.

Earlier, Lyceum survived a horrendous two-point output in the final period and carved out a 60-55 decision over San Sebastian for its first win in almost two months.

The Pirates went on a scoring binge in the first three quarters to cushion the impact of their fourth quarter meltdown with skipper Andrei Mendoza scoring his team’s only basket in the last quarter.

But that proved enough to hold off the rallying Stags and post their first win since routing the Mapua Cardinals, 74-59, last July 6, for a 3-5 card.