Basketball
San Beda narrowly escapes St. Benilde’s upset axe
San Beda’s immaculate winning run nearly came to an end at the hands of one of the league’s perennial doormats, College of Saint Benilde.
But the Red Lions pulled out one lucky stop in the game’s final play to escape with a 79-78 win over the unfancied Blazers to gain a share of the lead in the 87th NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan.
The Mendiola-based squad, admitting overconfidence and lack of effort, found themselves locked in a tight battle with the Blazers. Rookie Baser Amer kept his team afloat with 11 fourth quarter points in the close game.
San Beda appeared to have found some breathing room when Kyle Pascual, who topscored with 16 points aside from his seven boards, scored off Amer’s seventh assist for a 77-71 lead with 3:24 remaining in the game.
But the Blazers, egged on by screaming Benilde fans, made things interesting when Juan Taha scored to cut the lead to 77-75 with 1:30 to go, and later at 79-78 on a putback by Jonathan Grey with 13 seconds left.
St. Benilde fouled Amer with 8.9 seconds left, and the rookie muffed both charities to set up potential last-second heroics from the Blazers’ star guard Carlo Lastimosa.
Lastimosa drove and attempted a floater over Pascual but his shot missed just before the buzzer sounded, allowing the Red Lions to survive.
The win put San Beda in a tie with San Seabstian for the lead with a 4-0 win-loss record, but coach Frankie Lim visibly showed his dismayed toward his team’s performance after the game.
“I’m not happy with the way we played, but we’ll take the win,” said Lim. “I think was the only one who thinks that St. Benilde can pull off an upset.”
“We didn’t play with fire and we almost got burned.”
Regardless, San Beda won its 22nd consecutive NCAA game dating back to the start of last season.
Amer, the former Juniors Finals Most Valuable Player, had the best game of his freshman campaign with 11 points, two rebounds and seven assists.
“I guess we were overconfident,” said Amer. “We didn’t expect CSB to be that strong.”
Garvo Lanete had 12 points, nine rebounds and four assists for Sane Beda while Jake Pascual had seven points and 10 boards but was saddled with foul trouble.
Lastimosa led the Taft-based squad with 19 points, six rebounds and two assists, Grey had 13 points and six boards, and Taha added 11 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Luis Sinco tallied 10 points, eight in the second quarter to help CSB pull within 41-38 at the half.
The Blazers fell to 1-3 to tie Arellano for seventh place.
The scores:
SAN BEDA 79 – Pascual K. 16, Lanete 12, Amer 11, Semerad 8, Caram 8, Marcelo 7, Pascual J. 7, dela Rosa 5, Semerad 3, Sorela 2, Lim 0, Villahermosa 0, Pontejos 0.
ST BENILDE 78 – Lastimosa 19, Grey 13, Taha 11, Sinco 10, McCoy 8, Romero 6, de la paz 5, Altamirano 4, Deles 2, Tan 0.
Quarters: 21-16; 41-38; 60-57; 79-78.
