By Ivan Saldajeno
LETRAN scored two big wins this past week, the last against Perpetual Help, while Arellano and San Beda won as well. How did these affect the power rankings? Here's the latest update.
1. Letran Knights (5-0)
After passing their first acid test against San Beda last week, the Knights got a surprise one against the San Sebastian Golden Stags on Tuesday. Mark Cruz led their final charge and stole the win. Letran later beat then fellow unbeaten squad Perpetual Help two days later to solely retain the leadership in the league table.
2. Arellano Chiefs (4-1)
Arellano continues to sizzle after downing San Sebastian on Friday behind another fine performances from Dioncee Holts and Zach Nicholls. Jio Jalalon, on the other hand, dished out 16 assists in that ballgame.
3. San Beda Red Lions (4-1)
San Beda thought its game against CSB was over in the first half after opening a double-digit lead while limiting its opponent to only eight in the first quarter. But a third quarter blitz by the latter made the match interesting. San Beda held on to the win behind Ola Adeogun's best game this season with 25 points, 13 rebounds, and one block.
4. Perpetual Help Altas (4-1)
The loss to Letran pulled Perpetual Help down to fourth in the power rankings. Scottie Thompson was virtually by his lonesome in pulling the Altas back in the game as Prince Eze and Bright Akhuetie got blanked by Letran's "house of chaos". It turned out, however, that there was another reason behind Akhuetie's struggles as he revealed to Dugout Philippines after the game that he is suffering from a leg injury, but he expected that he will be at his 100 percent against Adegoun, Donald Tankoua, and the Bedans on Tuesday.
5. JRU Heavy Bombers (3-2)
JRU stays at the upper half of the power rankings after sophomore Tey Teodoro lift the team to a rout of Lyceum, a team that had the better of their matches in recent times.
6. Mapua Cardinals (2-3)
Mapua got back on the winning track after crushing EAC in their first meeting after their nasty melee last year. Josan Nimes led the Cardinals' charge to snap their skid.
7. San Sebastian Golden Stags (1-4)
San Sebastian nearly solved Letran's "magulong basketball" formula, only to be beaten in the end by "Ant-Man" Mark Cruz. More problem came for Coach Rodney Santos three days later as the Golden Stags got blasted by the Chiefs.
8. CSB Blazers (1-4)
CSB may have lost to San Beda, but giving the latter a fight in the second half was enough for CSB to go up the power rankings especially that Lyceum was bludgeoned this past week.
9. Lyceum Pirates (1-4)
Lyceum opened the week on the wrong side of a San Beda rout and ended it on the wrong side of another walloping, this time by a team it once gave a hard time, JRU.
10. EAC Generals (0-5)
EAC remained at the bottom of the power rankings after a 72-101 loss to Mapua. Coach Andy De Guzman may need some more time before he builds a similar lineup to the Generals team that nearly entered the Final Four two years ago.
(Note: The opinions of the writer do not reflect those of Dugout Philippines.)
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