Martin San Diego | FCF

A draw with a proclaimed winner.

This was the result of Satuday’s Champions for a Cause benefit game pitting the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball champion De La Salle University and four-peat National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) seniors basketball champion San Beda College at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum — a 74-74 tie but with P1.8 million raised for the benefit and rehabilitation of the people of Leyte and Samar.

The Green Archers conveniently led in the first three quarters of the game with hot shooting from Almond Vosotros, who led his team with 21 points, and tight post defense by Jason Perkins, but the Red Lions came back to life in the fourth quarter with an offensive outburst by Baser Amer and Anthony Semerad.

It was a see-saw battle in the last two minutes with an exchange of layups between Ola Adeogun and Jeron Teng, and an exchange of putbacks between Norbert Torres and Adeogun in the dying seconds of the game.

“I just want to say I’m thankful to be part of this to play in order to help the victims that got affected,” said the Cameroonian Adeogun, who led his team with 14 points.

“We were just very blessed to be part of this opportunity, and aside from playing Champions for a Cause, also very fortunate to play the NCAA champion team San Beda and it’s a great experience for our team, the Green Archers, to play the champion team Red Lions also,” said La Salle head coach Juno Sauler.

Aside from the P1 million ticket sales and audience donations from the event jointly organized by Filoil Flying V Sports and the MVP Sports Foundation, the alumni associations of both schools donated P370,000 apiece, which came from the corresponding P5,000 per point made.

Initially, alumni from both schools pledged P1,000 per point made by their respective squads.

An additional P50,000 was also raised from the ten three-point shots made in the game while P80,000 was raised from the one-rack three-point shootout side event at halftime.

De La Salle assistant coach and pro legend Allan Caidic, together with current Archer Vosotros and legend Ren-Ren Ritualo won the shootout with a combined total of 10, beating out the six total made by Amer, ex-Lion Borgie Hermida, and San Beda head coach Boyet Fernandez.