MAPUA survived a furious endgame rally by the University of the Philippines (UP) and Cardinals won their first match of the 2018 Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup on Sunday at the Filoil Fying V Centre in San Juan.
Mapua led, 75-67, after a gutsy Lawrence Victoria floater over UP center Bright Akhuetie with one minute and three seconds left in the game.
But the Fighting Maroons found some life after Juan Gomez De Liaño knocked down two consecutive triples, to slice the deficit to two, 75-73, with 24 seconds remaining.
The Cardinals’ Exie Biteng scored on a broken play and Eric Jabel hit two free throws to give Mapua some cushion in the face of a withering UP rally. Bright Akhuetie scored on a three-point play with no time left to close out scoring.
Mapua led for much of the game. And like De La Salle on opening day Saturday, made life miserable for Akhuetie, throwing him single, double and at times, triple coverage.
In spite of the tough and physical defense on him, the Nigerian center scored 30 points and grabbed 18 rebounds. Paul Desiderio added 13 points, while Juan Gomez de Liaño chipped in 12, including three triples, for UP.
Mapua also got a superb scoring effort from Exie Biteng, Eric Jabel, and Lawrence Victoria, who scored 19, 13, and 12 points, respectively.
“It’s the effort,” Mapua Head Coach Atoy Co said. “Team defense is very important for us. We cannot afford to play one-on-one. I am very glad to prove that we have a chance of winning even if we don’t have any imports.”
The Cardinals got some motivation by playing all-Filipino, especially against a team with Gilas players. “UP has Gilas players,” admitted Cardinal swingman Lawrence Victoria. “But we wanted to show on the court that we could match up with them.”
The game was also some form of grudge match as Atoy Co’s lads faced a familiar face in Will Gozum, who played for the Red Robins is his senior high school and led them to a National Collegiate Athletic Association juniors championship two seasons ago.
“I groomed that kid [Will]. I just told him ‘he still owes me,’” joked Co who also intimated that he wished that Gozum stayed home in Intramuros.
Gozum did play for UP Integrated School then joined Mapua for his senior high school years helping them to back-to-back juniors finals finishes.
Gozum got into a near scrum with his former teammates early in the fourth quarter. He was assessed a technical foul along with former high school teammate Jasper Salenga for trash talking.
Mapua Assistant Head Coach Randy Alcantara also expressed pride that Mapua fielded a mostly homegrown squad—Jabel, Victoria, Justin Serrano, Salenga, Warren Bonifacio, Noah Lugo, Daniel Aguirre and Joaqui Garcia moved up from the juniors ranks.
“It feels different playing homegrown pride,” Alcantara said.
UP head coach Bo Perasol remained upbeat despite his team’s early pitfalls.
“This is why we play the preseason,” Perasol said. “And we need more games like this.”