By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
SUDDENLY on a strong charge back, the Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals (EAC) shoot for their third straight win when they face off with the College of St. Benilde Blazers in National Collegiate Athletic Association Season 94 action today at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
Winners of their last two games after starting their campaign with four consecutive losses, the Generals (2-4) attempt to continue rising in their 2 p.m. collision with the middling Blazers.
The most recent of the victories of EAC came last Friday over the Mapua Cardinals, 89-85, where it leaned on key foul shots in the stretch to come away with the victory.
Jerome Garcia, Sean Neri and Renz Gonzales combined for five free throws in the last two minutes of the contest to help the Generals edge the Cardinals in the tightly fought contest.
Cameroonian Hamadou Laminou had a big game of 17 points, 12 rebounds, and six blocks in the Generals’ win, showing that he is progressing well from the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury he suffered last season.
“I’m not 100%; my hamstring still hurts a bit. But there’s no excuse for us not to play better and I just need to play smart and help in defense because I know we have scorers in the team,” said Laminou, who is fourth in scoring in the league with 16.5 points, fifth in rebound with 9.8 boards, and third in blocks with 2.8 swats per game.
The win over Mapua was in follow-up to their overtime victory over the San Sebastian Stags previously.
ST. BENILDE
Trying to spoil the continued ascent of EAC is St. Benilde, which has hit rough waters of late with back-to-back losses entering today’s game.
The Blazers (2-4) bowed to the league-leading Lyceum Pirates in their last game, 77-65, on Aug. 7.
St. Benilde did a good job keeping in step with Lyceum for majority of the match but just could not sustain it all the way to the end to slump to its second straight defeat.
Edward Dixon and Justin Gutang each had 13 points for the Blazers, who are out to break a two-way tie for sixth place in the standings with the Generals in their scheduled tiff.
Playing in the second seniors game at 4 p.m. are the Perpetual Help Altas (3-2) and Jose Rizal University (JRU)Heavy Bombers (0-6).
Perpetual Help is fresh from a cardiac win over San Sebastian, 78-76, on Aug. 9 in an “NCAA on Tour” offering at its home in Las Piñas.
Prinze Eze played savior for the Altas, tipping in the game-winner with half a second left on the clock.
With the game knotted at 76-all with 3.3 seconds remaining, AJ Coronel fed Eze for the game-winning basket which the latter successfully converted to hand his team the win to improve to 3-2 in the standings, good for solo fourth.
The game-winner was the cherry on top for Eze, who finished with 22 points, 18 rebounds and six blocks.
The big play also helped earn for Eze the player of the week honors, besting CJ Perez of Lyceum, Robert Bolick of San Beda, Bong Quinto of Letran, and Alvin Capobres of San Sebastian.
JRU (0-6), meanwhile, is still in search for its first victory in what has been a tough season for the team.
