Do not underestimate the heart of a champion.
This was how Colegio de San Juan de Letran announced its NCAA Season 98 debut as the back-to-back defending champion pulled off a 101-97 overtime win against Jose Rizal University on Wednesday.
Kurt Reyson scored a career-high 31 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter and overtime, to lead the Knights as they open their bid to win a third straight title.
King Caralipio had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Brent Paraiso and Fran Yu added 13 and 12 points, respectively.
JRU looked like it could score a huge upset late in regulation before Reyson buried a huge three-pointer to tie things up at 89 with five seconds left in the regulation.
Jason Celis then had the chance to give JRU the win but he missed out in his last attempt to force an overtime.
Reyson again opened the extra period with another booming triple, 92-89, before JRU's John Amores made it a 96-all affair with 1:25 left in the clock.
But Letran came up with the bigger plays as rookie Kobe Monje came up with a lay-up for the lead, 98-97, and Fran Yu sank two late charities for the win.
The Knights shrugged off a slow start to open their three-peat bid at 1-0 while JRU dropped to 0-2.
The Heavy Bombers stepped onto the FilOil floor all pumped up, leading all the way in the first half with the returning Agem Miranda pacing JRU with 12 points while Celis buried nine markers as they led, 49-41.
Letran's bright spot was the 13-point first half production from Reyson, who dropped three triples early. But those were not enough as the defending champions struggled to take the lead.
The Knights were able to chop down their deficit to one, 61-62, but two consecutive triples from skipper Ry Dela Rosa put JRU back up by eight, 70-62, with 2:11 left.
JRU was still ahead prior to the last 12 minutes of action, 74-71.
—JMB, GMA News
