By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
THE DEFENDING champions and league-leaders San Beda Red Lions kept their unblemished record intact after besting the Lyceum Pirates, 88-73, in National Collegiate Athletic Association Season 95 action on Tuesday at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
A rematch of the finals of the last two NCAA seasons, the Lions kept their dominance over the Pirates with the win, proving to be the steadier team in the end to book their seventh victory in as many games.
Earlier in the day, the San Sebastian Stags and Perpetual Help Altas halted their slide in the tournament with hard-earned wins over the Letran Knights and Emilio Aguinaldo College Generals, respectively.
San Beda versus Lyceum got off to competitive start until the Lions midway found the mark, led by Donald Tankoua and JB Bahio, to pull away with a 29-17 lead at the end of the first 10 minutes.
The Lions kept the pressure on the Pirates with Clint Doliguez starting the proceedings with back-to-back triples to make it an 18-point lead, 35-17, with just a minute and a half lapsing in the frame.
Jaycee Marcelino tried to rally back Lyceum but they were still down, 44-36 at the break.
Lyceum kept the pressure on San Beda to begin the third quarter, going on a 15-7 run in the first four minutes to overtake the Lions, 51-50.
The two teams went back and forth after with the Lions eventually staying on top, 61-58, heading into the final frame.
Sensing that the Pirates were getting too close for comfort, the Lions had a six-point blitz to begin the fourth to build a 67-58 lead by the 9:27 mark.
They would continue to hold sway, 74-64, at the midway point of the final canto.
From there, San Beda was steady, building their lead to 18 points, 82-64, with three minutes remaining.
It was never really serious threatened after as San Beda cruised to the win.
Calvin Oftana led the way for San Beda with 20 points.
Nzeusseu was the high point man for Lyceum (6-2) with 18.
STAGS SURVIVE KNIGHTS
Meanwhile in opening seniors’ play, San Sebastian survived playing undermanned in the end and a career game from Letran big man Larry Muyang to edge out the Knights, 102-101, in overtime to stop a three-game losing streak.
The Stags, playing sans head coach Egay Macaraya who was serving a one-game league-imposed suspension, lost a 17-point lead in the fourth period and were stretched to overtime by Letran but did just enough in extra time to book the win.
Allyn Bulanadi, Ken Villapando and Alvin Capobres stepped up in overtime for the Stags, which played with six players fouled out down the stretch, including top man RK Ilagan.
The Knights got the lead, 101-100, with 48 seconds left off a Muyang basket but Letran failed to add on to that.
Instead it saw San Sebastian reclaim the lead with 18 seconds left, 102-101, off the break with Bulanadi finding Villapando who scored the go-ahead basket.
It was a hole the Knights could not recover from as they slid to their second straight defeat.
Ilagan led the Stags with 22 points before fouling out with Bulanadi adding 21 points and Capobres 19.
With the win San Sebastian improved to 3-3 for the season.
For Letran (5-3), Muyang had a career-high 32 points to go along with 18 rebounds.
Jerrick Balanza had 21 points while Fran Yu added 13 markers.
“The players just showed tremendous hunger to win in this game. They did not want to lose. This is a good confidence boost for us after losing three straight,” said San Sebastian assistant coach Melo Banua, who took over for Mr. Macaraya, in the vernacular after their win.
In the second game, Perpetual Help stopped a two-game slide with an 88-87 win over EAC.
The Altas had control of the contest for much of the time but had to dig deep against a gallant stand from the Generals who kept fighting all the way to the end.
The victory was fashioned out by the Altas with interim coach Myk Saguiguit at the helm, taking the place of coach Frankie Lim who is on leave.
Rey Peralta led the way for Perpetual Help (3-5) with 19 points, followed by JJ Egan with 16 and Kim Aurin 14.
On the part of the Generals (1-7), who have now lost sixth straight, was paced by CJ Cadua with 22 points and Marwin Taywan 21.
