By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

JOINT league leaders College of Saint Benilde Blazers stake their unbeaten record against the streaking Letran Knights with National Collegiate Athletic Association Season 95 action resuming today at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan City.

The Blazers, holders of a 4-0 record in the ongoing season of the country’s oldest collegiate league, will try to stay unscathed in their 12 noon match versus the on-a-roll Knights (5-1), which is part of a scheduled triple-header.

Also seeing action today are the defending champions and still-unbeaten San Beda Red Lions (4-0) against the winless Mapua Cardinals (0-5) at 2 p.m. and the skidding San Sebastian Stags (2-3) versus season hosts Arellano Chiefs (1-4) at 4 p.m.

Incidentally, today’s matches will see the league return after games in the last play date on Aug. 2 were cancelled because of bad weather brought about by heavy monsoon rain.

Saint Benilde, which was supposed to battle San Beda last Friday, has been experiencing one of its best starts in the NCAA in recent years.

It last played on July 30 against San Sebastian and came away as a 77-72 winner despite playing sans top man Justin Gutang who was out because of knee injury.

Guard Unique Naboa paced CSB with 15 points, followed by Chris Flores with 14.

Jimboy Pasturan and Clement Leutcheu each had 12 points for the Blazers while veteran Yankie Haruna finally played his first game from injury and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.

“We just stuck together and found ways to win,” said CSB coach TY Tang after their win, which helped them keep their spot in the top two.

Out to stop the winning run of the Blazers are the Knights, who have been playing solid basketball of late and have racked up five straight wins.

The latest of the wins of Letran was over Mapua, 89-84, on July 30.

While they were greatly challenged by the Cardinals, the Knights managed to extricate themselves in the end to continue their ascent after opening the season with a loss.

Big man Larry Muyang led the Knights with 24 points and nine rebounds with Bonbon Batiller adding 15 markers, including a back-breaking triple in the closing seconds that put the game away for his team.

Jeo Ambohot finished with 14 points while veteran Jerrick Balanza had 11 markers.

Meanwhile, Perpetual Help Altas guard Edgar Charcos was named NCAA player of the week by the league press corps.

Charcos stepped up for the Las Piñas-based team in their last game, draining the game-winning floater with 3.4 seconds to go and hand his team the 75-73 win over Arellano on July 30.

The win halted for Perpetual Help a three-game losing streak and kept its position in the middle of the pack.

The game-winner capped Charcos’ solid game, which saw him finish with 15 points and five assists.

In winning the weekly award, Charcos edged out Letran’s Muyang, Saint Benilde’s Pasturan, and Jose Rizal University’s Chester Jungco.

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