MANILA—San Sebastian shoots for a 10th straight victory against dangerous Emilio Aguinaldo College, even as San Beda tries to bounce back from its first defeat in two seasons at the start of the second round of the 87th NCAA basketball tournament at the FilOil-Flying V Arena in San Juan.
The Stags, buoyed by a narrow 70-68 win over the Lions last Friday that completed a first-round sweep, are favored to repeat their 77-70 conquest of the Generals in their 4 p.m. showdown.
Despite losing to the Stags who ended their record 26-game winning run, the Lions are still fancied to prevail against a Perpetual Help squad that only has one win to show so far in their 11:45 a.m. duel.
“I told the team it’s not the end of the world,” said San Beda coach Frankie Lim, after his Lions absorbed their first loss in two seasons. “We have the whole second round to make up for that loss.”
San Beda drubbed Perpetual Help, 82-52, in the season-opener last July 2 with Rome dela Rosa, Garvo Lanete and Jake Pascual joining forces to put the game beyond the Altas’ reach as early as the third quarter.
The Altas have struggled to find a go-to-guy this season and their league-worst 65.6 points per game average in the first round supports that fact. Only Jet Vidal, who posted 11 points per game in the first round, averages in double figures for the Altas.
Most Valuable Player race leader Calvin Abueva, who leads the league in scoring (20.9) and rebounding (11.6), will again lead the Stags, along with Ronald Pascual and Ian Sangalang, who ranks second in the MVP derby.
San Sebastian coach Topex Robinson said they cannot afford to take any team for granted.
“We’ll have a big target on our chest so there’s nowhere to go but up,” said Robinson, whose squad leads the league in shooting percentage at 45.1 while holding opponents to 33.6 shooting.
“We have to double our efforts,” said the 6-foot-3 Abueva, who was part of the San Sebastian team that won the title in 2009.
The Generals, who already surpassed their win total from last season, will pin their hopes on flashy guard Jan Jamon, who averaged a team-best 14.8 points in the first round, Filipino-American rookie Joshua Torralba and Claude Cubo, the team’s best rebounder with 7.1 boards per outing.