by Kevin Estrada
The National Collegiate Athletic Association will return to its spiritual home at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum for its first two game days of November as the basketball tournaments of the 101st season head into the crucial stretch.
A trio of men’s division match-ups are up in store in the game’s preeminent cathedral, and more fittingly to open it with a rematch of the Centennial Season’s title series between defending champions and host school Mapúa (4-4) and St. Benilde (5-3) in a crossover encounter on Tuesday, November 4.
Coming in second in a tight group B, the Blazers return to the fabled floor in Vito Cruz for the first time since August 25, 2006, with Martin Urra and Christian Cabatu nearly toppling a Khiel Misa-led Perpetual Help before the Altas prevailed in a 68-66 thriller.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals (4-4, 2nd in Group A) waited longer to return to Rizal. Their last game also resulted in a defeat to the Altas, 63-71, in Season 80 (2004).
Bannered by Erwin Sta. Maria, Joferson Gonzales, and Sean Co, the Horacio Lim-mentored Cards ultimately fell to San Beda in a playoff for the last Final Four seat that year.
Speaking of the Red Lions, the Group B leaders (6-2) will return to the Rizal hardwood for the first time in nineteen years, facing Lyceum in another crossover match-up.
While the Group A cellar-dwelling Pirates will be playing there for the first time as full members of the NCAA, San Beda’s last outing at Rizal was a 77-57 rout of the Altas nine days before Benilde’s setback to the same Perpetual side.
Coached by Koy Banal, the sensational Sam Ekwe, Yousif Aljamal, and company eventually took the crown home to Mendiola after a 28-year wait, which kicked off the modern dynasty.
The lone game on November 5 will have Arellano (3-5) also making their first-ever NCAA game in Vito Cruz against JRU (4-4), who, like Mapúa, last saw the Rizal Memorial in league play 21 years ago, where the Heavy Bombers led by Marco Fajardo fell to the Blazers.
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