In a battle of two lifelong rivals, the San Beda College Red Lions showed more hustle, outworking the Colegio de San Juan de Letran Knights to take a 75-63 victory, Sunday afternoon at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
This is San Beda’s sixth win in as many games to stay on top of Group A, while Letran dropped to 1-6. The Red Lions also clinched a quarterfinals berth.
“Letran did a good job today. I just pity them that [Rey] Nambatac didn’t play,” lamented San Beda head coach Boyet Fernandez, as Nambatac had missed his third straight game due to a hyper extended left knee.
After a close first half, Robert Bolick lit it up in the third frame, scoring five straight points to give San Beda a 12-point edge entering the final frame.
“Robert really wanted to win and came in and change the tempo of the game,” Fernandez remarked about Bolick, who finished the game with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
The Red Lions continued to pressure the Knights in the final frame, forcing their arch-rivals to multiple shot clock violations while crashing the boards on the other end. A buzzer-beating jumper by Joe Presbitero with 1:52 left gave the Red Lions its biggest lead of the game, 72-56.
Presbitero finished the game with eight points while fellow sniper AC Soberano added 10 points. Except for Javee Mocon, no Red Lion played more than 20 minutes in the game.
“We started flat, it’s really the boys who made this win,” Fernandez admitted.
San Beda out-rebounded Letran, 46-27, while shooting 48 percent from the field.
Jerrick Balanza led Letran with 17 points. Bong Quinto and Jeo Ambohot scored 11 and 10 points respectively while JP Calvo dished out a game-high eight assists.
San Beda will next face the JRU Heavy Bombers on Wednesday, June 14, at 5:00pm. Letran will play their final game in the tournament on Friday, June 16, facing NCAA rivals De La Salle University Green Archers at 3:15pm.
The Scores:
SBC (75) – Bolick 17, Soberano 10, Noah 9, Presbitero 8, Potts 7, Toba 7, Bahio 6, Abuda 5, Tongco 4, Mocon 2, Adamos 0, Carino 0, Doliguez 0, Bonsubre 0.
CSJL (63) – Balanza 17, Quinto 11, Ambohot 10, Calvo 6, Vacaro 6, Balagasay 4, Gedaria 4, Bernabe 3, Pascual 2, Taladua 0, Pamulaklakin 0, Caralipio 0, Mandreza 0
Quarterscores: 12-17, 36-31, 59-47, 75-63.
