Red Lions shoot down Cardinals

Games today:

(Filoil EcoOil Centre)

11 a.m. — JRU vs Perpetual

2:30 p.m. — Letran vs Lyceum

San Beda University flaunted its might, posting a convincing 79-70 victory over Mapua University in Season 101 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament on Friday at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.

Rookie Janti Miller was impressive, outshining reigning Most Valuable Player Clint in their head-to-head encounter to lift the Red Lions to their fourth win in five games for the top spot in Group B of the preliminaries of the country’s oldest collegiate league.

Meanwhile, Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) stopped the bleeding with a materful 83-74 victory over Arellano University in the first game.

Wilmar Oftana and Brianne Bagay dropped 19 and 15 points, respectively, to lead the Generals’ well-balanced offensive assault that paved the way for their return to the win column after suffering sorry losses to Letran College and San Beda University in their previous match.

Jude Bagay contributed 12 points with four rebounds while Chris Shanoda added 11 points in the first half for EAC, which launched a torrid second-half attack to turn a close match into a blowout.

Still, the day belonged to Miller.

The 21-year-old Filipino-American recruit erupted for 16 of his 20 points in the first half with four three-pointers on a sizzling 63.6 percent shooting from the field. He capped his hot performance with a triple that stretched their lead to 18, 34-16, in the opening minutes of the second period.

Miller wasn’t alone in that barrage. Yukien Andrada and Jimmy Reyes also sank three-pointers, while Jomel Puno knocked down midrange jumpers, helping San Beda rack up 28 perimeter points in the first two periods that greatly hurt the morale of the reigning champions.

Mapua, however, refused to go down without putting up a fight.

The Cardinals mounted a strong rally in the third quarter with a 10-3 run and closed the gap to 59-58 on a Drex delos Reyes basket with 1:14 remaining in the frame. But Miller doused cold water on that furious rally by knocking down a transition jumper before Penny Estacio nailed a three-pointer to restore order, 64.58, and seal the victory.