Steady Arboleda lifts Altas past Chiefs

MANILA, Philippines – Perpetual Help lived from the free throw line while Arellano U died from it.

Harold Arboleda drained two pressure-packed free throws while Adam Jacob Serjue missed two on the other end as the Altas escaped with an 82-80 victory over the Chiefs to jump to joint second with San Beda in the 89th NCAA basketaball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City Monday.

"He's the leader of this team because of his big heart. And he showed it in this game by making those crucial free throws," said Perpetual Help coach Aric del Rosario in Filipino referring to the 23-year-old Arboleda.

Nigerian Nosa Omorogbe, who is running second behind Letran's Raymond Almazan in the MVP race, erupted with his season-high 26 points he spiked with 12 rebounds and four assists but it was Arboleda who came through when their team needed it most.

After Serjue, who has stepped up in the absence of suspended fellow Fil-Canadian James Forrester, scored to give Arellano U an 80-78 lead, with 2:14 minutes to go, Arboleda answered by hitting two charities several plays later to tie it at 80-all with 26.8 seconds.

The Chiefs failed to cash in on their chance in the possession and Omorogbe fired an airball from behind the arc that landed straight into Arboleda's hand as he was fouled by Ralph Salcedo with 6.3 ticks left in the clock.

Arboleda again calmly made his foul shots and Serjue managed to draw a foul from Justine Alano on the next play with 0.8 second to go.

With a chance of sending forcing another deadlock and sending it into overtime, Serjue, who has missed the whole season last year and majority of the first round and is one for two this season, couldn't handle the pressure and missed both free throws, allowing Perpetual to escape with the win.

"We kept our composure, that was the key," said del Rosario.

The come-from-behind win thus pushed the Las Pinas-based school from third to a share of second place with San Beda on 8-2 (win-loss) slates and just a game behind league leader Letran (9-1).

Arellano U, which was led by Keith Agovida's 17 and Levi Hernandez's 16, in contrast, fell from a share of No. 7 with St. Benilde (3-6) to joint No. 8 with Lyceum on 3-7 cards.

With Baloria silenced early, Omorogbe picked up the slack and dropped 19 points on the Chiefs as the Altas went to the locker room at the break ahead, 40-39.

Baloria later made up for his first half woes by scoring all his 14 points in the second half including nine in the critical run in the final period.

Pinto kept Arellano U in the thick of things as he paced his team with 11 points in the first half.

The scores:

(First Game)

Perpetual (82) -- Omorogbe 26, Baloria 14, Thompson 11, Arboleda 9, Alano 9, Jolangcob 6, Elopre 3, Dizon 2, Bitoy 2, Oliveria 0, Ylagan 0, Bantayan 0, Lucente 0.

Arellano (80) -- Agovida 17, Hernandez 16, Caperal 14, Pinto 12, Nicholls 5, Salcedo 4, Bangga 4, Serjue 4, Jalalon 3, Gumaru 1, Cadavis 0.

Quarters: 21-19, 40-39, 59-53, 82-80.