Mapua is enjoying one of its best starts in the NCAA basketball tournament, but coach Chito Victolero is not yet celebrating.

"Yes we're happy that we're No. 3 right now, but there's still a lot of work to do. We still need to improve on many things in order to compete with the best teams," said Victolero.

This early, the Cardinals seemed to have already overachieved after surpassing their 1-8 win-loss mark in the first round of eliminations last year by registering their fifth win in seven games with a thrilling 65-63 overtime triumph against College of St. Benilde last Friday.

That victory moved them a win short of matching their six-win output last season, and more importantly put them at solo third, not far behind the unbeaten league leaders San Sebstian College and San Beda College (6-0).

But with still one more game in the first round and a full eight-game schedule in the next, Victolero wants to set the bar a little bit higher for his boys.

"We need to be tougher mentally and learn to close out big games," said Victolero referring to their defeats to defending champions Stags (68-49) and Lions (69-64). "Against San Beda, we had the chance to win but we were only beaten in the last two minutes. Against San Sebastian, we played well for three and a half quarters before losing."

The Cardinals are on a three-game winning streak and Victolero credits that to their well-balanced scoring.