Pirates seek 7th straight win vs Blazers

MANILA, Philippines — Lyceum of the Philippines U seeks to keep its unbeaten slate as it slugs it out with St. Benilde today, looking for a seventh straight victory in the 94th NCAA seniors basketball tournament at the Filoil Flying V Center in San Juan.

The Pirates are again expected to cash in on their fluid offense built around CJ Perez as they take on a St. Benilde side out to stop their run with its third league-best defense and shore up its own bid after a struggling 2-3 start.

Gametime is at 2 p.m. with the Pirates expecting to keep their league-high 91-point norm. In defense, they are at No. 4 in points allowed (76) behind San Beda (62.5), Letran (68) and St. Benilde (73.8).

But Lyceum coach Topex Robinson wants his wards to focus more on defense.

“We’d like to press the energy out of every team we face because we really want to focus on our defense more than outscoring our opponents,” said Robinson.

The Blazers, who dropped a sorry 60-64 defeat to the Letran Knights last Thursday, will also be zeroing in on slowing down Perez, who norms 20.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 3.5 steals.