JOHN Amores, a former NCAA juniors basketball Sportsmanship awardee, has lost his mind.

With College of Saint Benilde putting the game beyond recall at 71-51, play stopped at the 3:22 mark after Amores, after briefly pacified at the Jose Rizal University bench, charged at several Blazers players, throwing punches left and right in one of the fabled collegiate league’s dark episodes at the Filoil EcoOil Centre yesterday.

After Migs Oczon scored a triple for a 20-point Benilde advantage, Amores and Chris Flores went down on the floor and the referees blew the whistle to prevent further chaos.

As he was being cooled down, Amores was pointing at someone at the Blazers side and hell broke loose. Benilde’s Mark Sangco threw a punch at the charging Amores but missed.

Absorbing heavy hits from Amores’ right hand, Taine Davis and Jimboy Pasturan laid down on the sidelines. Amores also punched Migs Oczon, but the Benilde guard was able to escape harm.

Amores was immediately escorted out of the court immediately after all the damage he had done in the league’s worst on-court violence since the Emilio Aguinaldo College-Mapua late second round elimination round match in 2014. Several players from the Generals and the Cardinals received multiple suspensions as result of the brawl.

The game was eventually called, and the Blazers were awarded the victory, raising their record to 10-3, while sending the Bombers to their seventh loss in 13 games. The league also will conduct further investigation on the incident.

It was not the first time Amores figured in this kind of heated situation. In a preseason tournament a few months ago, Amores attacked University of the Philippines; Mark Belmonte and had to undergo oral surgery.

Earlier, also-ran Emilio Aguinaldo College summoned what’s left of its roster to beat University of Perpetual Help System Dalta, 59-53, and log its only second win of the season.

The Generals ended a four-game losing streak despite missing big man JP Maguliano, as well as Nat Cosejo and Allen Liwag, who sustained injuries in the middle of the match and never returned.

“Credit to the guys of course, nandoon yung resiliency. Before the game, tinagalog ko yung katatagan despite all the negative things that happened to us. So they responded,” said EAC coach Oliver Bunyi.

Given more playing time, Art Cosa stepped up for the Generals with 14 points and eight rebounds, while Adrian Balowa scored 10 points.

“Yung opportunity na ibinigay sa kanila, they grabbed it,” said Bunyi.

The Altas’ shooting was abandoned, as only Rey Barcuma and Mark Omega only performed well with a 62 percent clip, as the rest of the team only shot 18 percent.

Now tied with Mapua in eighth place at 5-9, Perpetual is now on the brink of elimination, trailing Lyceum of the Philippines University (9-5) by four games in the race for the last Final Four berth.

Rey Barcuma led the Altas with 12 points while Mark Omega added 11 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks.

The scores:

First Game

EAC (59) — Cosa 14, Luciano 12, Balowa 10, Liwag 6, Dominguez 6, Tolentino 5, Cosejo 4, Umpad 2, Quinal 0, Ad. Doria 0, An. Doria 0, Angeles 0, Bacud 0.
Perpetual (53) — Barcuma 12, Omega 11, Nitura 8, Razon 5, Abis 3, Egan 3, Roque 3, Flores 2, Boral 2, Movida 2, Pagaran 0, Nunez 0, Cuevas 0, Martel 0.
Quarterscores: 19-13, 34-26, 47-39, 59-53.