San Beda, San Sebastian on collision course today
NATIONAL Collegiate Athletic Association rivals San Beda Red Lions and San Sebastian Stags collide for the first time in Season 94 today in a scheduled matchup at 4 p.m. at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
Currently charting contrasting paths early in the tournament, the defending champions Lions (5-0) look to stay unbeaten in the first round with a sixth straight victory while the Stags (3-5) shoot for consistency in winning as they try to make their way up the pecking order.
San Beda is coming off a narrow 80-76 victory over the Letran Knights on Aug. 10 where it relied on the all-around game of veteran Robert Bolick and clutch shooting of AC Soberano to hack out the dig-deep victory.
Bolick found multiple ways to elude Letran’s defense all game long en route to finishing with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists while Soberano came up big in extra time, hitting two booming triples in overtime to help the reigning back-to-back champions in their cause.
“Credit to the players for stepping up in this game to get this tough win,” said San Beda coach Boyet Fernandez following their win.
San Sebastian, for its part, is fresh from a tough 78-76 loss at the hands of season hosts Perpetual Help Altas at the latter’s home in Las Pinas on Aug. 9.
With the score knotted at 76all with 3.3 seconds remaining, the Stags saw the game slip away from their hands when the Altas scored a game-winning basket care off Prince Eze with half a second remaining.
It completed for Perpetual Help a charge back from as much as 21 points down and spoiled for San Sebastian an opportunity to win back-to-back games.
Preceding the San Beda-San Sebastian match is the battle between Perpetual Help (4-2) and Mapua Cardinals (2-5) at 2 p.m.