Basketball
Mapua, San Beda shoot for third wins against separate NCAA foes
AKTV/Paul Ryan Tan
Two teams gun for their third straight wins today when they clash against separate foes in the 88th Season of the NCAA at the Arena in San Juan.
Mapua, which already got the green light for their four rookies Gab Banal, Joseph Eriobu, Jessie Saitanan and Mark Braña from the NCAA Policy Board, will be taking on the Lyceum Pirates at 4 p.m.
The four new faces may have to wait until Monday before they could suit up for the Cardinals, though.
Coming off back-to-back come-from-behind wins over Saint Benilde and EAC, Mapua will play Lyceum with a crippled lineup as the four rookies will have to submit additional documents first.
Josan Nimes and Kenneth Ighalo, who is coming off a double-double performance of 13 points and 23 boards, are both expected to come up big again for the Cardinals, who are looking to extend their streak to three.
Lyceum’s first win came last week through an 83-81 thriller decided by two charities from Mark Francisco with 3.2 seconds remaining.
The Pirates will have to hurdle Intramuros neighbor Mapua for their second win.
In the main game, the San Beda Red Lions will try to clinch their third straight win when they battle the Perpetual Altas.
San Beda’s last outing was an 82-67 rout on Lyceum some ten days ago while Perpetual is coming off an 80-65 loss at the hands of San Sebastian. The loss snapped the Altas’ two-game winning streak.
The Red Lions will still be without Nigerian center Ola Adeogun, who will be available in their game on the 21st against Letran. Adeogun is still serving a four-game ban.
