Lyceum of the Philippines will look to inch closer to a first round sweep when it takes on San Beda University while winless teams Colegio de San Juan de Letran and Arellano University square off on Sunday in the NCAA Season 99 men's basketball tournament.
The red-hot Pirates will shoot for their sixth straight victory at 2:40 p.m. against the Red Lions while the Knights and the Chiefs meet at 12:20 p.m. Before all that, Mapua University and Emilio Aguinal College will open the triple-header at 10 a.m. at the FilOil EcoOil Centre.
Lyceum remains as the lone unbeaten team in the league, taking down the likes of Letran, Benilde, Perpetual, San Sebastian, and Arellano en route to a clean 5-0 card as the wards of head coach Gilbert Malabanan continue to storm the tournament.
Their biggest test came last Friday against Arellano, where they found themselves deep in a 24-point hold before a second half surge turned things around for the Pirates. Mclaude Guadaña buried the game-tying dagger to force an overtime, before JM Bravo and Greg Cunanan took over in the extra period.
But Malabanan and the Pirates aren't about to stop there, stressing the need to buckle down to business against a San Beda side that has won two of their previous outings against Benilde and Letran.
"San Beda is a very strong team, kailangan lang namin mag-prepare for San Beda's game. Kahit nanalo kami, tomorrow kailangan namin magtrabaho," Malabanan said.
(San Beda is a very strong team, we just need to prepare for their game. Even if we won, we still need to work tomorrow.)
Meanwhile, Letran and Arellano, both winless in four games, will slug it out to finally barge into the win column.
The Knights are coming off a tough 68-63 loss to longtime rival San Beda last Friday as their four-peat bid is now in danger. But team captain Kurt Reyson said they remain optimistic, highlighting the fact they just need to pick up the first win for the momentum to shift to their side.
"Sa akin naman, sinabihan ko sila na hindi kami pwedeng maging watak-watak. Kumbaga, optimistic pa rin kami and sama-sama pa rin kami. Kukunin namin 'yung isang panalo," Reyson said.
"Naniniwala pa rin kami."
(For me, I told them that we should not be falling apart. We should be optimistic we are together. We will get one win. We still believe in it.)
In the first game, Mapua will look to pick up where it left off while EAC is hoping to bounce back from a loss to Jose Rizal University.
The Cardinals are coming off a huge victory against the Blazers where Paolo Hernandez and Clint Escamis took charge late before carving out a 75-71 win to improve to 3-1. EAC, on the other hand, saw its two-game winning streak get snapped by the Heavy Bombers for their first loss.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
