College of Saint Benilde and Mapua battle for solo third as the two teams try to keep their slim hopes of securing an outright Final Four berth Tuesday in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the La Salle Greenhills Gym.
Coach Charles Tiu hopes that his Blazers will regain the form that gave them four straight victories in the 12 noon match with the Cardinals.
A shock 68-74 loss to last-placed Jose Rizal University a week ago put CSB in danger of missing the top two after the end of eliminations. The Bombers’ victory ended a five-game losing skid.
“I hope they will bounce back and learn from the JRU loss where we were outplayed. We need to have better focus and take every team seriously because we aren’t that good,” said Tiu.
Will Gozum, the team’s biggest acquisition during the hiatus, is expected to suit up after hurting his right foot in the second half against JRU.
Gozum, who will face his former Red Robins teammate Warren Bonifacio for the first time in the NCAA, is not only coach Randy Alcantara’s main concern when they break their tie with the Blazers at 4-2.
“Hindi lang si Will ang paghahandaan namin, pati ang whole team ng CSB,” said Alcantara.
After starting 3-0, Mapua suffered back-to-back losses before regaining its winning ways via 95-83 rout of University of Perpetual Help System Dalta last Wednesday.
With identical 5-0 records, defending champion Letran and San Beda need to win two more games to assure themselves of an outright Final Four berth with a twice-to-beat advantage.
For this shortened season, the league has instituted play-in games, where teams ranked third to sixth after the single-round eliminations will have a shot of clinching the remaining Final Four slots.
San Sebastian and JRU clash in the day’s other game at 3 p.m.