{"id":2238,"date":"2025-07-18T04:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/2238\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T04:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:52:12","slug":"arellano-a-darkhorse-contender-for-ncaa-season-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/2238\/","title":{"rendered":"Arellano a darkhorse contender for NCAA Season 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

TRUTH be told, Arellano<\/a> is far from the top of mind when talking about NCAA<\/a> contenders.<\/p>\n

But in the Playtime Cares 18th Filoil EcoOil Preseason Cup<\/a>, the Chiefs proved just about everybody wrong by barging into the quarterfinals as the Grand Old League’s No. 4 team – ahead of longtime power San Beda<\/a>, perennial Final Four contender Lyceum<\/a>, and even defending champion Mapua<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Nalaman namin na kaya naman pala. Lahat ng tinatrabaho namin, nagbubunga na,” head coach Chico Manabat<\/a> told SPIN.ph.<\/p>\n

\"Arellano's<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW \u2193 <\/p>\n

Come the quarterfinals, Arellano got paired with UAAP<\/a> top seed and then-unbeaten La Salle<\/a>, and the former kept in step with the latter in the first half.<\/p>\n

READ: Topex says NCAA just proved it can still hang with UAAP<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, the fully loaded Green Archers turned it on in the third quarter en route to an 18-point win, just as the Chiefs ran out of gas.<\/p>\n

Still, the surprise playoff run, that included victories vs. the Cardinals and Red Lions, as well as the competitive showing against the Green Archers proved that Arellano is well on its way.<\/p>\n

\"Arellano's<\/p>\n

CONTINUE READING BELOW \u2193 <\/p>\n

To where, you ask? To legitimate contention, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa amin, malaking boost lahat ‘to. Nakita naming yung tinatrabaho namin, tama, yung program namin, tama,\u201d said Manabat.<\/p>\n

No fail for the Chiefs<\/p>\n

With all the pieces coming together to create a perfect picture for the Legarda-based squad, Manabat couldn\u2019t help but hope they could bring this energy straight to the upcoming Season 101<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa next season, sana, makatagos din kami as one of the NCAA’s top contenders,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe in time, magko-compete din kami.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Arellano's<\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW \u2193 <\/p>\n

The Chiefs have had to endure seven long seasons of not qualifying for the NCAA Final Four.<\/p>\n

But as they just proved in ending a nine-year playoff drought in Filoil Preseason, this present lineup of theirs knows a thing or two about exceeding expectations.<\/p>\n

Get more of the latest sports news & updates<\/a> on SPIN.ph<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TRUTH be told, Arellano is far from the top of mind when talking about NCAA contenders. But in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[562],"tags":[3365,64,63,726,3366,707,724,725,704,721,3364,723,722,85],"class_list":["post-2238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaab","tag-arellano-chiefs","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-chico-manabat","tag-college","tag-college-basketball","tag-collegebasketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaa-season-101","tag-ncaab","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}