San Beda's Lina Bismarck during an NCAA Season 100 men's basketball game. –NCAA Photo
San Bede made sure that there were no surprises on Saturday.
The Pink Lions returned to the Arellano Chiefs, posting a 79-65 victory in the NCAA Season 100 basketball tournament that solidified their hold on second place as the final round of the preliminaries continues to unfold.
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This time not only was there no surprise, but any trace of revenge was also erased.
“Today (Saturday) we did a better job,” said San Beda coach Yuri Escueta. “An addition [we had in our game] it was us [made sure] respect our opponent.”
“I felt like [we took] them lightly and we needed to respect them [and] defend them properly,” added the former Ateneo guard, whose students lost a 72-70 decision to Arellano last month.
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Bismarck Lina helped prevent this from happening again.
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Playing in just his third game since recovering from an ACL injury that sidelined him for nine months, Lina scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench in one of his best performances yet since He left the University of Santo Tomas at the UAAP.
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Cardinals and Lions tied
Heading to San Beda, the 6-foot-5 Lina was part of the University of the Philippines' 2022 championship team before joining the Pink Lions.
“For someone we can trust in the position, [he is a big help] especially our shooters,” Escueta said of the former Batang Gilas member.
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Among the shooters who benefited from the extra defensive attention Lina attracted was Yukien Andrada, who hit four 3-pointers en route to 15 points for the Lions.
With Lina advancing, San Beda recorded a fourth consecutive victory, all after the loss to the Chiefs in the first round, and the seventh overall in 10 games.
Jomel Puno, meanwhile, was as solid as an oak for San Beda, racking up 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as the Lions sent the Chiefs to their seventh loss in 10 outings.
Mapua tied San Beda's record in the other game, with Yam Concepción turning in a career-high performance to lead the Cardinals to a 75-71 victory over the Jose Rizal Heavy Bombers.
Concepción's career-high 19 points gave Mapua what it had been looking for for a long time: another solid contributor to help its big three: Clint Escamis, Chris Hubilla and Marc Cuenco.
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Concepción also had a career-high five blocks along with eight rebounds to complement the efforts of the Cardinals' top players. Escamis finished with 14 points, Hubilla added 13, while Cuenco contributed 10 and Mapua also rose to 7-3 (win-loss).