Arellano University leaned on key cogs in pulling off a narrow 91-84 squeaker over De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde - La Salle Green Hills in the NCAA Season 100 juniors basketball tournament on Wednesday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.
Plenty of heroes emerged for the Braves with Johnray Ladica registering 24 points on an impressive 61.5 shooting. percentage together with four rebounds, and one assist. Chris Dy and Axel Mendoza provided the help in offense with 17 and 13 markers each with the latter also grabbing 12 boards and four blocks.
The win allowed Arellano to end its back-to-back losses to Perpetual and Mapua University and improve to an even 3-3 card while the Greenies fell to a similar 3-3 record.
Arellano once stared at a 73-65 hole early in the fourth period, but the Braves displayed what courage is and unleashed a pivotal 11-4 rampage that trimmed their deficit to a solitary point, 76-77, with 4:29 left in the frame.
Dy then continued waxing hot by burying back-to-back three-pointers that awarded them an 82-77 cushion while Ladico sank a pair of freebies to make it an 88-80 separation in the final 51 seconds.
Benilde-LSGH tried to roar back with Dale Ortega and Guillian Quines shooting two consecutive baskets but Arellano hung tough and completed three straight freebies for the victory.
Quines stuffed the stat sheet in the loss as the Benilde-LSGH veteran posted 26 points, six rebounds, nine assists, and two steals while Ram Sharma chimed in with 14 markers and eight boards.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
