It took two overtimes before Mapua University successfully kicked off its title defense in Season 101 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

With star playmaker Clint Escamis fouling out, JC Recto stepped up leading the Cardinals to a heart-stopping 90-89 win over Lyceum of the Philippines University to open their title bid in Group A of the country’s oldest collegiate tournament on a red-hot note.

Recto flirted with a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds to fill the void left by skipper Escamis, who fouled out in the final 3:27 of regulation.

“We just had to stay composed. Whoever our coaching staff picked was ready,” Recto said. “We just had to focus on the game.”

Down 85-87 with 1:10 left in the second overtime, Recto scored on a putback off a Cyril Gonzales miss to knot the count at 87. Then, Earl Sapasap nailed a layup to give the Cardinals a slim two-point lead, 89-87, in the final 62 seconds of the game.

Michael Verzosa restored order with a jumper to tie the count at 89 in the final 36 seconds but Marc Cuenco split his free throws to give the Cardinals a slim 90-89 lead.

The Pirates had a chance to win. Unfortunately, Lyon Pallingayan missed a potential game-winning jumper in the dying seconds to allow the Cardinals escape with the victory.

Cardinals assistant coach JR Carlos credited his boys for hanging tough, saying that they were at the edge of their seats from start to finish.

“Until the end, as you can see, we still don’t know who’s going to win,” Carlos said, noting that their defensive intensity allowed them to score 34 easy points out of Lyceum’s 24 turnovers on top of 23 fastbreak points.

“Let’s start on defense. As you can see, our late shots came from their turnovers and our fastbreaks. That was our biggest adjustment.”