Jose Rizal University repelled University of Perpetual Help System DALTA to notch their third straight victory in NCAA Season 99, 71-65, on Saturday at the Filoil EcoOil Arena in San Juan City.
Sustaining their impressive start to the season, the Heavy Bombers improve to a 4-1 win-loss card. In contrast, despite claiming their first win last Tuesday, the Altas are still trying to find their footing, dropping to 1-3.
Coming off the bench, Shawn Argente continues to dazzle in his maiden campaign as he produced a team-high 17 points to go along with three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Meanwhile, veterans Joshua Guiab and Marwin Dionisio churned out 12 and 8 markers each, with the latter grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.
Notably, the JRU bench outgunned the Perpetual supporting cast, 45-21.
With stalwart Agem Miranda having an off-game and team captain Ry Dela Rosa still out, Heavy Bombers head coach Louie Gonzales applauded his troops for the character they showed sans their key players.
“Yung maganda na nakita ko is that instead na hinanap namin 'yung puntos ni Agem, nag-stick kami sa maglalaro kami sa bawat isa,” said Gonzales.
(The great thing that I saw today was that instead of looking for Agem’s points, we stuck to our game plan of playing for each other).
Despite leading for almost the whole game, the Heavy Bombers experienced a setback as Cyrus Nitura gave Perpetual a one point lead midway through the final canto, 57-56.
Instead of folding under pressure, JRU unleashed a 8-0 scoring salvo capped off by a Guiab basket to steer away from the Altas, 65-57.
Perpetual’s star guard Jielo Razon attempted to mount another comeback by draining a three, 65-60. Nevertheless, timely baskets by JL Delos Santos and Vince Sarmiento were enough to get JRU over the line and send them to their fourth victory of the season, 71-65.
JRU will now turn their attention to the San Sebastian College-Recoletos as the two teams go head-to-head on Tuesday, October 10, while the ALTAs play the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde on the same day.
Scores:
JRU 71 - Argente 17, Guiab 12, Dionisio 8, Medina 8, Sarmiento 7, De Leon 6, Miranda 6, Delos Santos 5, Pabico 2, Arenal 0, Barrera 0, Mosqueda 0, Ramos 0, Sy 0.
UPHSD 65 - Nitura 19, Razon 14, Pagaran 12, Roque 11, Ferreras 8, Boral 1, Abis 0, Barcuma 0, Boral 0, Cuevas 0, Gelsano 0, Omega 0, Orgo 0.
Quarterscores: 20-14, 40-35, 52-49, 71-65.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
