Big 3 hand Stags 11th in row

MANILA, Philippines - Drawing the usual big numbers from its “Big 3”, San Sebastian racked up its 11th straight win with a 97-70 demolition of Arellano in the 87th NCAA men’s caging at The Arena in San Juan yesterday.

Calvin Abueva fired 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, posting his 31st career double-double, to backstop top scorer Ian Sangalang’s 24 point production. The other member of SSC’s triple threat, Ronald Pascual, scored 17 points, hauled down seven rebounds and made eight assists.

SSC routed an Arellano team (4- that was handled by assistant mentor Junjie Ablan. AU head coach Leo Isaac is out of the country to scout potential Fil-Am recruits for the Chiefs in the US.

“I told them that we can’t afford to be complacent. I reminded them that Arellano came off a win and without coach Leo, it’s kind of scary for me because they want to prove something – that they can win without him,” said SSC coach Topex Robinson.

“So it’s a challenge for my players not to be complacent. This tournament is a sprint; it’s not a marathon where you can relax. Somebody’s just behind us waiting to take our spot,” said Robinson.

But the Chiefs were a threat only in the first quarter, holding a 10-9 lead with three minutes left in the period. From there, the Stags reasserted their might, seizing 17-12 lead and never looked back.

The Stags enjoyed huge leads that reached 31, at 61-30, with 5:29 remaining in the third.

“It’s a testament to how we play our defense. More than our scoring, what I saw earlier was that we’re dictating the tempo on defense...if we could play our defense our opponents are going to worry on both ends, how they’re going to stop our players and how they’re going to score against us,” Robinson said.

Letran made its move in the fourth quarter as it hacked out a 75-56 victory over Jose Rizal, to go 9-2, just half a game behind No. 2 San Beda (9-1).

Olmin Leyba, Philippine Star