Twin towers Seven Gagate and Luis Pablo dominated as La Salle Green Hills refused to go home just yet, forcing a do-or-die match in the NCAA Season 98 Juniors Basketball Tournament after beating San Beda-Taytay, 92-79, on Monday at the San Andres Sports Complex.
Gagate and Pablo both finished with monster performances with the former finishing with 24 points on 66-percent shooting, with 12 rebounds and two blocks, while Pablo contributed 23 markers on 83-percent from the field with 11 rebounds, and two rejections.
“It started last game against San Beda when we lost. It started there and then on practice I kept on telling them if they do the little things and do our game plan… if we don’t go away from ohr gameplan then we’ll be fine. So that’s what they did,” said the Greenies head coach Renren Ritualo.
The Greenies blew the game wide open in the third canto thanks to Gagate’s 15-point third quarter as the lead ballooned by as much as 21, 72-51 after a Gian Gomez breakaway layup.
From there LSGH held on to the lead and did not let go until the end of the game.
Joining the scoring barrage was Rod Alian with 14 poonts, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals, and Gomez who added 11 markers, a dime and a steal.
Before that, Chris Hubilla was keeping San Beda within striking distance after scoring 22 of his 34 points in the first half, which helped them to put the game on a deadlock at 48-all at the end of the second quarter.
“Actually I’m not really worried about Hubilla, I’m worried about the pther guys — yung mga guards nila who killed us the last game. Hubilla was getting his numbers but we contained the other players,” said Ritualo.
Hubilla also grabbed 15 rebounds and two assists, while John Lopez had 26 markers nine boards and a dime.
Both teams will battle it out on Thursday, 12NN for a spot in the NCAA Finals.
The Scores:
LSGH (92) — Gagate 24, Pablo 23, Alian 14, Gomez 11, Ison 8, Rivero 5, Mesias 4, Zaragosa 2, R. Romero 1, S. Romero 0, Villaver 0, Natividad 0, Muyuela 0, Zamora 0.
San Beda (79) — Hubilla 34, Lopez 26, Ludovice 8, Lecciones 5, Dungo 3, Wagan 3, Mundas 0, Lorenzo 0, Reyes 0, Ronquillo 0, Lacsamana 0, Manarang 0, Sahali 0, Sollano 0.
Quarterscores: 22-16, 48-48, 74-58, 92-79
