History beckons Perpetual

University of Perpetual Help System Dalta shoots for a historic finals appearance when it battles Malayan School in the Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Season 99 juniors basketball tournament on Sunday at the Filoil EcoOil Center.

The Junior Altas are coming into the semifinals armed with a twice-to-beat incentive, putting them one win away from entering the finals of the country’s oldest collegiate league for the first time since 1984. Should they prevail over the Red Robins, they will face the winner between reigning champion Letran College and San Sebastian College in a best-of-three finals showdown. Game 1 is set on 16 March, Game 2 on 20 March and Game 3 on 23 March. Still, the Junior Altas are heavily favored as they wrapped up the eliminations with an 8-1 win-loss card to emerge as the No. 1 seed. Perpetual coach Joph Cleofas stressed that he reminded his team to stay hungry and humble as they seek to enter the finals for the first time in 40 years.

“As a preparation, we will learn from our fundamentals, much more fears going to the game, and stay grounded and give our 100 percent inside the court,” Cleofas said, extending gratitude to Perpetual team owner Anton Tamayo for his all-out support. “We just went back to how we started, basically the condition, improved our skills and shooting and system, especially on defense and I believe that we can get it in this game.”

To realize their goal, Cleofas will bank on Amiel Acido, JD Pagulayan, Mark Gojo Cruz and Lebron Daep as well as guard Regie Ayon, Icee Callangan and Jamal Diaz. Acido, the frontrunner in the Most Valuable Player award, averaged 17.6 points, 10 rebounds and 4.1 assists in the eliminations while Pagulayan normed 14 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.

They will face a dangerous Red Robins side that dealt them their lone loss this season, a 72-71 decision on 25 February.