College of St. Benilde eased the sting of several unmet expectations as it claimed third place with a 93-83 victory over Lyceum of the Philippines University yesterday in NCAA Season 99 at the MOA Arena.
Robi Nayve and Miguel Corteza saved their best for last and fired 18 and 14 points, respectively, while Josh Cajucom scattered 15 for the win that is historic since the Blazers became the first to receive the league’s third place trophy in senior basketball.
“We’ll take it, we would have been fourth under normal circumstances,” said CSB coach Charles Tiu.
In this game, CSB has officially bid goodbye to its senior players—Nayve, Corteza, Will Gozum and Miguel Oczon among them.
“We have a lot of recruits, seven guys out officially, six seniors and Oczon,” said Tiu. “At least nine guys are coming in that can compete for a spot in the team. I guess it’s a better problem to have than no player.”
“It’s a completely different team, I feel I’m starting from scratch,” he added.
CSB needed a massive third quarter attack to turn what was once a tight contest into a ghastly rout.
The Pirates, who were already without Enoch Valdez who already signed and playing for the NLEX Road Warriors in the PBA, were paced by Mclaude Guadana’s 16 points and Alvin Penafiel’s 15 points but just didn’t have the killer instinct as before.