Dolphins cool down fancied Blazers

Beating a powerhouse team like defending champion St. Benilde is nothing new for Philippine Christian University.

The Dolphins, showing grace under tremendous pressure, proved this yesterday when they pulled off a stunning 68-64 victory over the Blazers to barge into the win column of the 76th NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Since we beat them in the elims of the recent Fr. Martin’s Cup, we employed the same strategy. We rattled them with our defense and showed that St. Benilde is a beatable team," said PCU coach Kevin Ramos shortly after the rousing victory, his team’s first after losing their first two games against San Beda and Letran.

The Blazers, coming off back-to-back wins over the Red Lions and the Knights, got off on the wrong foot, committing 16 turnovers in the first half alone in allowing the Dolphins to race to an early 13-2 lead which they padded to 25-11 early in the second quarter.

"In our first two games, we averaged close to 14 turnovers. But in this game, we had 16 in the first half alone. We lacked the mental toughness out there and maybe my players thought that they could win this game just by showing up here," said a dejected St. Benilde coach Dong Vergeire.

In the other game, Letran blasted San Beda, 86-77, to join St. Benilde in second at 2-1 behind unbeaten Jose Rizal University, which totes a 3-0 mark.

In juniors play, it was La Salle-Greenhills over Philippine Christian, 72-57, and San Beda over Letran, 72-70.