{"id":221976,"date":"2019-07-08T02:49:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T06:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=221976"},"modified":"2019-07-08T02:49:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T06:49:27","slug":"ncaa-95-opening-sees-lyceum-victory-over-contender-letran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/08\/ncaa-95-opening-sees-lyceum-victory-over-contender-letran\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA 95 opening sees Lyceum victory over contender Letran"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
“Simula na naman ng bakbakan! Watch the action-packed opening ceremonies of NCAA Season 95 this Sunday, July 7, 2019, live at 12:00NN at the Mall of Asia Arena! #VivaVivaPirata” (Photo<\/a>: Lyceum of the Philippines University Manila<\/a>\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>The Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) Pirates proved that they are a force to be reckoned with in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) after opening the 95th season at the SM Mall of Asia Arena last Sunday, July 7, where they conquered Colegio de San Juan de Letran in a thrilling 84-80 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Marcelino brothers set the pace for the Pirates, with Jaycee contributing a total of 24 points and Jayvee chipping 18. In the fourth quarter alone, the twins helped secure the win as they contributed a total of 16 points. Jayvee even provided a crucial layup in the last 3.8 seconds of the game. Teammate Reymar Caduyac also proved to be a leader with 16 points, five rebounds, and three assists, opening the season with a bang despite the absence of Cameroonian import Mike Nzeusseu, who is still recovering from a jammed right index finger.<\/span><\/p>\n

Letran, on the other hand, was paced by both Jerick Balanza and Larry Muyang, who provided 19 and 14 points for the Knights respectively. Unfortunately, Muyang was fouled out during the last minute and a half of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

LPU head coach Topex Robinson reacted to their first win of the season, revealing in Filipino, \u201cJaycee told me, \u2018Coach, we\u2019re the smallest ones.\u2019 And I told him, we have two choices: it\u2019s either we lose by just being the smallest team or we win by being the smallest team.\u201d Coach Topex added, \u201cWe might be the smallest, but what we have is the quickest team in the league right now and we\u2019re focusing on all our energy to being the smallest and the quickest team in the league, hoping that teams won\u2019t catch up our quickness.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Robinson also revealed how crucial it was to have the presence of their alumni CJ Perez and MJ Ayaay, explaining, \u201c<\/span>Our team is about honoring CJ and Ay for bringing us, but also building on it. We\u2019re grateful for what they did but what\u2019s important is what\u2019s in front of us,\u201d referring to their second-place finish last season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Pirates will have a chance to score another win next Friday, July 12 as they face the EAC Generals at the Filoil Flying V Centre, while Letran will face hosts Arellano on the same day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) Pirates proved that they are a force to be reckoned with in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":221977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","mauthors-gianna-llanes","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221984,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221976\/revisions\/221984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}