San Beda smashes EAC

Games Wednesday:

(Filoil EcoOil Centre)

12 p.m. — Arellano vs Lyceum

3 p.m. — Saint Benilde vs JRU

Tony Ynot posted a double-double on Tuesday to power San Beda University to an 82-74 victory over Emilio Aguinaldo College in Season 98 National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball tournament at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.

Firing a career-high 25 points, Ynot, who shot 10-of-14 from the field, also grabbed 10 rebounds as the Red Lions made up for their sorry 75-72 defeat to University of Perpetual Help System Dalta over the weekend.

From a 56-54 edge with six minutes and 20 seconds left, San Beda unleashed a 9-0 blitz that settled the outcome of the game under two minutes on the gameclock.

San Beda head coach Yuri Escueta was delighted by the performance of the Mendiola-based squad that raised its record to 7-4.

"This shows in terms of our composure and the mental toughness of these guys. They really picked each other up," Escueta said.

"I'm not surprised with how Tony plays. He played well today like how he does in practices. He was cramping up but he is still diving for the ball. He's a special player."

JP Maguliano had 11 points as the Generals remained on the bottom of the standings with a 1-12 slate.

Meanwhile, Mapua University held off a late rally from University of Perpetual Help System Dalta for a 73-65 victory in the first game.

Warren Bonifacio was a rebound shy of a double-double with 14 points and nine boards as the Cardinals avenged their 79-77 loss to the Altas in the first round.

Mapua was comfortably up 69-59 with three minutes and 44 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter when Perpetual staged a 6-0 run, capped by two free throws by Christian Pagaran, to cut the deficit to four.

Rence Nocum then sank three of his four charities with 11.9-second mark of the game before Jeric Pido split his two freebies with 5.8 ticks left to keep the game out of the Altas' reach.

Cardinals head coach Randy Alcantara said the team's defense and hustle spelled the difference in this game.

"It was a big improvement on defense. We were able to stop the other team's scorers. We lost in rebounding but we're still reminding them that part of defense is boxing out," said Alcantara, whose team improved to a 4-9 win-loss record.

Apart from Bonifacio, Pido also came up big with 13 points behind a 4-of-8 shooting from the field for Mapua  while Paolo Hernandez had 11 points and five assists to his name.

Carlo Ferreras had 22 points for Perpetual but it wasn't enough to prevent the team from sliding down to a 5-7 slate.

First game:

MAPUA (73) — Bonifacio 14, Pido 13, Hernandez 11, Agustin 10, Nocum 9, Cuenco 8, Mercado 6, Soriano 2, Garcia 0, Salenga 0.

PERPETUAL (65) — Ferreras 22, Pagaran 10, Abis 5, Egan 5, Roque 5, Boral 5, Barcuma 4, Flores 3, Razon 2, Omega 2, Nitura 2, Martel 0, Orgo 0.

QUARTERS: 18-23, 34-37, 60-54, 73-65.

Second game

SAN BEDA (72) — Ynot 25, Kwekuteye 13, Andrada 9, Bahio 7, Alfaro 5, Visser 4, Jopia 3, Cortez 2, Cometa 2, Cuntapay 2, Sanchez 0, Payosing 0.

EAC (64) — Maguliano 11, Liwag 10, Balowa 9, Cosa 9, Cosejo 7, Ad. Doria 5, Luciano 4, Angeles 4, Dominguez 3, Cabuhat 2, Tolentino 0, Umpad 0, Bacud 0.

QUARTERS: 21-17, 41-38, 54-51, 72-64.