San Beda College inches closer to history after claiming a wire-to-wire victory over first-time finalist Arellano University, 74-66, in Game 1 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 90 seniors basketball finals on Monday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The five-peat seeking Red Lions are a win away from duplicating San Sebastian College’s feat achieved from 1993 to 1997, and collecting their eighth title in nine years. Game 2 is set on Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Fourth year guard Baser Amer led their cause with 17 markers, five rebounds, and seven assists. Nigerian center Ola Adeogun chipped in 14 markers, 14 rebounds, three assists, and four blocks, while Anthony Semerad added 14.
Amer anchored their initial 11-0 spurt, featuring their starting five that boasted four big men in Adeogun, Kyle Pascual, Arthur de la Cruz, and Anthony Semerad which harked back to their playoff win for the number one spot last October 10.
The tactic resulted to the Red Lions’ biggest margin of 15, 26-11, before the end of the first 10 minutes.
But the Chiefs’ men inside the shaded lane worked double-time against the tall firs of Mendiola to sneak within striking distance of the NCAA’s longest-running dynasty in recent years.
Reserve forward Nico Bangga paced the Arellano comeback trail, scoring six points in the second quarter to aid in trimming down their deficit to just nine by halftime, 40-31.
American center Dioncee Holts, despite being hounded by Kyle Pascual in a change of matchup, kept their hopes afloat early in the third and knocked down three consecutive shots. However, the Chiefs could only manage to exchange baskets to trail by nine, 59-48, after the third.
Then, Arellano U made one last push – an 8-2 mini-spurt in the first 3:43 of the fourth, highlighted by most improved player Jiovani Jalalon’s back-to-back layups – to cut their deficit to just five, 61-56, and force San Beda to burn a timeout.
But with the foul-plagued Jalalon exiting right about the time when he found his form, San Beda Head Coach Boyet Fernandez made a crucial counter-adjustment that resulted in big men Adeogun and de la Cruz stomping on Arellano’s hopes and inflating their advantage back to 13, 72-59, on Amer’s dagger trey with 1:10 left.
Fernandez later admitted that his strategic ploy was to neutralize Arellano’s advanage in terms of quickness, as exhibited by the duo of Jalalon and Keith Agovida.
“We cannot beat them with speed because they are really quick, so we just have to match up with the bigs and hope they will not attack us on the fastbreak,” said Fernandez.
“I’m happy that I requested Ola [Adeogun] to sprint back on defense and he did that. Baser [Amer] also controlled the ballgame,” he added.
Agovida finished with a team-high 14 points and 17 rebounds, but contributed to Arellano U’s downfall by missing eight crucial free throws during the fourth quarter as part of the team’s 13 off-target shots on the foul line during the contest.
