Allen Liwag is not keeping it a secret that he has molded his inside game to mirror that of a former NBA star. And he has taken College of St. Benilde along for the ride in Season 100 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Liwag scored 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in leading the Blazers to an 80-65 demolition job of Jose Rizal University, as Benilde remained in the elimination-round lead after rising to 10-2 overall at Filoil EcoOil Arena in San Juan on Sunday.

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“I always observed how he (Dwight Howard) did it during practice and eventually, I was able to adopt the move, too,’’ said Liwag in Filipino as he kept the lead in the season MVP derby by sustaining his double-double average in points and rebounds.

Liwag was referring to Dwight Howard’s bread-and-butter post-up move, which he learned while they were teammates at Strong Group Athletics, which finished second in the Dubai International Championship early this year.

Meanwhile, Mapua’s Chris Hubilla poured all of his 17 points in the first half and then focused on defending San Beda’s most reliable scorer as the Cardinals survived the defending champion Red Lions, 58-55, in the other game.

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Staying within reach

But while Hubilla was busy restraining Yukien Andrada, Marc Cuenco delivered the goods in the fourth by scoring 10 of his 11 points, including a go-ahead three that stopped the rampaging Lions on their tracks.

“Yukien is hard to defend, you don’t know what kind of shot he will take. Never mind that I didn’t score in the second half as long as I get to stop him,’’ said Hubilla, whose gallant effort for the second straight game kept the Cardinals within reach of the pacesetting Blazers.

The Cardinals are half a game behind the leaders at 10-3, while sending the Lions to their fifth defeat in 13 games.

Bryan Sajonia had 12 points and Jomel Puno added 11 for the Lions, who had to crawl from 14 points down that set up a thrilling finish. INQ