San Beda, San Sebastian remain undefeated

This appears in the Thursday August 12, 2010 edition of the Business Mirror.

San Beda, San Sebastian remain undefeated

by rick olivares

The San Beda Red Lions are never bored with winning games but for head coach Frankie Lim, it’s all about getting those victories with consistency. “Every team comes to play us and they try different things.” said the fourth year head coach after his Red Lions stepped on the accelerator in the third quarter and turned a close 37-35 game against the College of Saint Benilde into a 87-61 rout. “Luckily for us, we are able to make our adjustments in time.”

It was San Beda’s seventh straight win in Season 86 of the NCAA in the first match of a double header at the San Juan Arena yesterday. Despite lording over the boards and scoring more second chance points in the first half, the Red Lions committed more turnovers that allowed the CSB duo of Carlo Lastimosa and Mark de Guzman to combine for 19 of the Blazers’ 35 points.

San Beda responded in the third with the Fil-Am duo of Rome dela Rosa and Kyle Pascual combining for 13 of the team’s 22 points. In the fourth, they turned the game over to their closer, Garvo Lanete who scored 10 points going away. Lanete has been nursing an assortment of ailments recently that forced him to miss San Beda’s game against Arellano.

CSB couldn’t handle San Beda’s size and depth, something that Lim addressed in the off-season with blue chip recruits after San Sebastian beat them in last year’s title game. The Red Lions’ frontline led by Sudan Daniel, dela Rosa and Pascual combined for 25 out of the team’s 48 rebounds to the mere 22 of the Blazers.

“We just didn’t have the size to contest San Beda,” rued CSB head coach Richard del Rosario who also saw his team shoot blanks in the second half en route to 38% shooting.

The Blazers, who fell to 1-6 were led by de Guzman’s 16 points and Lastimosa’s 14.

The Red Lions are on a collision course with defending champions the Stags who disposed of the Arellano Chiefs 69-58 in the main game for a similar 7-0 record.

Incredibly, the game also mirrored San Beda’s earlier first half struggle against CSB. The Stags merely led by three points 36-33 after the first 20 minutes of play. Most Valuable Player candidate Calvin Abueva gave his team a huge shot in the arm with 8 points in the third quarter on top of his usual stellar defense. “The Beast” as Abueva is nicknamed, tallied 17 points, 17 rebounds, and 2 steals.

Ronald Pascual, who got his team off to a roaring start in the third canto with a breakaway dunk added 13 points.

Andrian Celada led Arellano University with 16 points but he missed a crucial triple with San Sebastian up 67-54 with three minutes to play. The Stags shut the Chiefs down the rest of the way. Arellano University fell to a 2-5 record.

San Sebastian head coach Ato Agustin was not entirely pleased with the win as he lost back up guard Eric Gatchalian to two flagrant fouls that will merit automatic suspension for the Stags’ match against San Beda next Wednesday August 18 at the San Juan Arena.