The San Beda College Red Lions utilized a huge third quarter surge to handily defeat the San Sebastian College-Recoletos Golden Stags, 87-77, to win its eighth straight Friday afternoon at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
Donald Tankoua led the Mendiola cagers with 20 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the field and 8-for-12 from the foul stripe. He added five rebounds and four blocks to his stat line. All 15 Red Lions who entered the game scored at least a point.
However, even in notching its eighth straight win, San Beda head coach Jamike Jarin went on record to say that his team regressed this game.
“32 turnovers. I’m happy because we won but I’m mad because we had 32 turnovers and they did not press us,” San Beda head coach Jamike Jarin lamented.
The Stags were able to keep pace with the Red Lions in the first half, mostly due to the 19 first half turnovers of San Beda that led to 19 points.
Powered by Tankoua and Dan Sara, San Beda was able to breakaway from their opponents. The Cameroonian student-athlete scored eight points in the quarter while Dan Sara added seven markers.
The momentum carried over to the early parts of the final period as free throws by Arnaud Noah gave San Beda a game-high 19 point lead, 77-58, with eight minutes remaining in the game.
“This team was built to play selfless,” Jarin furthered. “In the third quarter to the middle of the fourth quarter, we did it. Then, they came back.”
The second and third stringers of San Beda though failed to sustain the same aggression of the starters. Turnovers plagued the Red Lions, including four straight by Calvin Optana, that led to a 12-4 San Sebastian rally. Back-to-back triples by Alvin Capobres and Ian Valdez cut the lead to just 10, 83-73, with 2:12 remaining in the game.
“Imagine four players with four turnovers,” a disappointed Jarin added. “That means we are playing selfish, this is a decline! We’re just lucky we got away with the win.”
Fortunately for the Red Lions, RK Ilagan and Capobres missed open threes as the Red Lions were able to hang on to the win.
“We have to clean this up,” the mentor closed.
Davon Potts added a silent 13 points in the win while Noah scored 10 points in just eight minutes of game time before fouling out with six minutes left in the game.
For the Stags, Ilagan was the high point man with 20 points, draining five triples but was just 6-for-16 from the field. Allyn Bulanadi added 13 points and eight boards.
The Red Lions (8-0) play its final game of the round on Tuesday, July 9 against the JRU Heavy Bombers at 2:00pm. The San Sebastian Stags finish the round at ninth place with a 1-8 slate.
The Scores:
SBC (87) – Tankoua 20, Potts 13, Noah 10, Mocon 7, Sara 7, Presbitero 5, Bonsubre 5, Optana 4, Soberano 3, Bolick 3, Carlos 3, Tongco 2, Alas 2, Navarro 2, Adamos 1.
SSC-R (77) – Ilagan 20, Bulanadi 13, Capobres 9, Valdez 7, David 6, Costelo 6, Calisaan 5, Mercado 4, Calma 4, Fabian 2, Johnson 1, Serajosef 0, Baetiong 0, Quipse 0, Gayosa 0.
Quarterscores: 27-23, 45-38, 68-53, 87-77.
