The San Beda College (SBC) Red Lions maintained its perfect record in the 2015 FilOil Flying V Premiere Cup tournament with a 75-56 win over the Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) Pirates Saturday afternoon at the FilOil Flying V Arena, San Juan City.
Art Dela Cruz dominated the scoring for San Beda in scoring six out of eight points in the early minutes of the game. The San Beda starting five locked down on the Pirates’ starting five as they only allowed five points in the first five minutes of the game. The SBC lead grew to as high as eleven, 20 to 9, with three minutes to go in the quarter. A late spurt by Jebb Bulawan cut the Lion’s lead to just seven with a minute to go, but a three by Isaiah Reyes in the closing seconds of the game gave San Beda a ten-point lead to close the quarter.
The Pirates were able to cut the lead in the second quarter due to the aggressiveness on offense of Joseph Gabayni, Wilson Baltazar, and Guy Mbida. They paced the Pirates against the second unit of SBC as they trimmed the lead slowly. Jayvee Mocon and Ryusei Koga, however, kept the lead for the Red Lions. San Beda was still up 40-34 entering halftime.
The floodgates opened in the third quarter as the starting five of San Beda College displayed their new defensive scheme. While Adeogun manned the paint, the other four players for San Beda pressed on their opponents and challenged every shot of their opponents, giving them no free looks. As a result, San Beda only gave up seven points in the quarter. On the offense, Art Dela Cruz continued to be aggressive in scoring seven points in the quarter while JP Mendoza scored four points as well. In the closing minutes of the quarter, Roldan Sara’s back-to-back three pointers gave San Beda a huge 23-point cushion.
Waving the white flag, both team fielded their upstarts in the final quarter to give them on-court experience.
Art Dela Cruz, who was also celebrating his birthday, led all scorers with 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting. Ryusei Koga joined in the offensive onslaught as he scored 11 points, including 3 three pointers. For the Pirates, only Gabayni and Baltazar scored in double digits as they scored 10 points apiece.
As a team the Red Lions shot 48% from the field compared to the Pirates dismal 36% shooting. Moreover, the Red Lions hit nine threes in the game.
The Red Lions next play the Scorpions on Friday, May 15 at 5:00pm while the Pirates face the Fighting Maroons on the same day at 11:45am.
The Scores:
SBC 75 – Dela Cruz 19, Koga 11, Mocon 1,, Adeogun 7, Mendoza 6, Sara 6, Soberano 5, Sorela 4, Cabanag 3, Reyes 3
LPU 56 – Gabayni 10, Baltazar 10, Mbida 9, Sunga 8, Bulawan 6, Marata 3, Nguidjol 2, Alanes 2, Elmejrab 2, Ayaaay 2.
| TEAMS | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH |
| SBC (B, 3-0) | 25 | 40 | 64 | 75 |
| LPU (B, 0-4) | 15 | 34 | 41 | 56 |
