MANILA, Philippines – Count the Jose Rizal Light Bombers as legitimate title contenders.
Several days after slaying a basketball high school dynasty in San Beda, Jose Rizal went on a giant-slaying rampage again as it brought down last year's semifinalist San Sebastian with an emphatic 85-70 win to leapfrog to the top in the juniors division of the 90th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City Wednesday.
Trailing the Staglets by a point, 28-27, at the break, the Light Bombers went on attack mode in the third quarter with prolific Mark dela Virgen doing most of the damage to turn that deficit to a 52-43 lead at the end of the third period.
And then the Kalentong-based squad never looked back from there.
Dela Virgen finished the game with a game-best 21 points, including four booming triples and spiked it with another game-high 13 rebounds while Darious Estrella, Andrei Dada and Jamil Garcia chipped in 14, 13 and 12 points, respectively.
It was Jose Rizal's second straight victory after pulling the rug from under a heavily favored San Beda, 76-74, with Estrella making the game-winning basket off a beautiful inbound feed from dela Virgen.
So in three days after bringing down the five-peat champion in San Beda and last year's third placer San Sebastian, Jose Rizal has morphed into a team that never made it to the Final Four the last five seasons into a serious title challenger.
It also ushered in a new era for these young Jose Rizal cagers, who could end a title drought for almost four decades if they could continue to defy the odds, go all the way and cop their first high school championship since winning it all in 1977.
"We're happy with what we have accomplished but the most important thing is that the league is now starting to respect Jose Rizal," said Jose Rizal coach Nat Gregorio.
Indeed, the Light Bombers are whipping boys no more.