Art Dela Cruz notches triple-double in San Beda’s third straight win. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Looking at a probable comeback from Jose Rizal University, Ola Adeogun carried San Beda down the stretch for an 83-75 trumping of the Heavy Bombers in the NCAA Seniors Basketball tournament Thursday at San Juan Arena.
Adeogun made the paint his personal playground, going on a solo 9-0 run to put some distance between the Red Lions and the Heavy Bombers with an 80-71 lead with 2:19 remaining.
Before Adeogun went on his personal outing, the Red Lions were subject to a Tey Teodoro explosion as the diminutive guard went on a his own 8-0 run that gave the Heavy Bombers a taset of the lead, 69-67, with 7:01 remaining.
Art De La Cruz, meanwhile, put up his first triple-double in his NCAA career with 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists while Adeogun had 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Red Lions head coach Jamike Jarin attributed their second half collapse to complacency as the Heavy Bombers pressed hard on defense forcing San Beda to numerous turnovers.
“We didn’t take care of the ball during the JRU run,” Jarin said. “We played complacent and turned the ball over many times and what’s bad is our back-to-back turnovers gave the Heavy Bombers the momentum.”
With the win, San Beda broke the tie atop the standings with idle Letran as the Red Lions improved to 10-2.
Paolo Pontejos had a team-high 19 points for the 6-5 JRU while Teodoro added 16.