St. Benilde logs crucial win

THE College of St. Benilde Blazers ended the first round with a crucial win yesterday after beating the Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals, 80-68, in the 87th NCAA basketball tournament at the Arena in San Juan City.

The Blazers tied the Lyceum Pirates at 4-5 (win-loss) for a share of fourth place going into the second round, a good spot to launch their bid for a possible semis stint.

Jonathan Grey posted a double-double with a team-high 17 points and 12 rebounds to pace the Blazers.

Mark Romero, before getting injured after a bad fall late in the third, added 12 points and five boards to more than make for Carlo Lastimosa’s below average performance of only 10 points.

The Blazers jumped to a 17-7 lead late in the first frame before the Generals sliced it to three, 21-24 early in the second period. But the Blazers built a double-digit lead, 40-28 with under a minute left in the second.

With the Blazers ahead 42-36 at 8:47 in the third period, EAC’s Josh Paguia and CSB’s Jan Tan tangled in a rebounding play when the latter threw an elbow to the former’s jaw. After a few seconds, Paguia walked towards Tan and retaliated with an elbow of his own to Tan’s chest. Both players were both slapped with flagrant foul penalty two and were ejected. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio