San Beda Red Cubs shoot for 19th NCAA Juniors title

MANILA, Philippines – San Beda shoots for a record 19th title Thursday when it collides with St. Benilde-La Salle Green Hills in the 87th NCAA juniors basketball tournament at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.

Gametime is at 2 p.m. with the Red Cubs looking to close out a series that has been too close to call and overtake Mapua as winningest team in the juniors division.

The Red Cubs rallied for a thrilling 74-73 victory last Monday to move within a win of the title.

Entering the finals, San Beda owned a thrice-to-beat advantage or a 1-0 edge in a best-of-five series as incentive for sweeping the elimination round.

The Greenies put the finals on equal terms with an 85-82 nipping last week. That turned out to be San Beda’s only loss so far this season.

“We will go all out and try to end the series today,” said San Beda coach Britt Reroma.

Judging at how the first two games of the finals turned out, though, it looks easier said than done for the Red Cubs.

The Greenies led by as many as 10 points in the third quarter, before the trio of Francis Abarcar, Arvin Tolentino and Daryl
Nazareno joined forces to forge the come-from-behind win.

Reroma is still concerned at the way his team played despite the win.

“We were not sharing the ball well,” said Reroma, whose team only had a season-low six assists last Monday.

The Greenies can take hope at the fact that they pushed the Cubs to the limit last Monday.

Two turnovers doomed the Greenies in the last 23 seconds. Thomas Torres’ pass to a wide open Jon Villaruz under the basket with six seconds left was broken up by Antonio Bonsubre as the Red Cubs survived a tight endgame.

“We can’t allow them (Greenies) to get back into the series,” said Reroma.