Lyceum of the Philippines University bested Jose Rizal University, 82-75, to finally enter the win column in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament Wednesday at the La Salle Greenhills Gym.
Enoch Valdez, who came through with 21 points, 12 rebounds, and five steals, simply kept the faith as the Pirates made a breakthrough.
“Sa amin, mas natutunan namin ‘yung trusting each other, believing in the system. Kasi pag sa iba, ‘yung 0-3, mada-down ka talaga,” said Valdez.
“Kami, mas na-build namin. Mas magtiwala kami sa isa’t isa,” the pride of Mangatarem, Pangasinan added.
Coach Gilbert Malabanan, who took over from Jeff Perlas, who left LPU without handling a single NCAA game due to family reasons late last year, was satisfied his troops responded in earning his first win.
“I’m very happy sa ipinakita ng mga players ko. I give credit to them. Kasi they are the ones who are working hard sa practice,” said Malabanan, who was one of Topex Robinson’s assistants in the Pirates’ Finals runs in 2017 and 2018.
“’Yun lang ang sinasabi ko sa kanila. I want to be aggressive offensively and defensively,” he added.
Rookie McLaude Guadaña played his best game so far in LPU uniform with 14 points, three assists and two boards while Yancy Remulla also had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
The Bombers fell to 0-4 to become the lone winless team.
Jason Celis scored 24 points, JL delos Santos added 14 points, six rebounds and five assists while Marwin Dionisio also scored 14 points to go with 10 rebounds for JRU.
