Roaring louder

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

San Beda had so much respect for San Sebastian that the Red Lions hardly gave their archnemesis an inch on Tuesday in Season 95 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Behind the stellar performances of tireless forward Calvin Oftana and marvelous wingman James Canlas, the unbeaten defending champions posted a wire-to-wire domination of the Stags, 91-76, to clinch their 14th straight Final Four appearance.

“We had problems in the first three games of the second round. This time, we showed what we are capable of,” said San Beda coach Boyet Fernandez after the utter domination that stretched the Lions’ unbeaten run to 13 games.

Canlas scored eight of his 20 points in the second quarter where the Lions started tearing the game apart, while Oftana finished with an impressive all-around performance of 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Also shelling out solid contributions were forward Donald Tankoua, who had 18 points and seven rebounds, and guard Evan Nelle, who finished with 11 points, seven assists and five boards.

The defensive crackdown on Allyn Bulanadi also helped doom the Stags as the high-scoring forward was limited to 14 points despite playing almost the entire game.

San Sebastian dropped to 7-5.

“San Sebastian is a strong and well-coached team. We didn’t take any chances,” said Fernandez.

Sneaky guard Fran Yu delivered a career-high 19 points to send the streaking Letran Knights past the slumping St. Benilde Blazers, 87-74, in the other game.

Ato Ular also powered his way to 20 points and eight rebounds for the Knights, but credit definitely went to Yu for engineering a late charge that pushed the Blazers out of their comfort zone for good.

The Knights moved up to solo third at 9-4 while forging the Blazers’ second straight defeat in the second round and sixth overall in 12 games. The setback of the Blazers also allowed the Lions to secure a semifinal spot.

Mapua continued to play like a well-oiled machine to hammer out an emphatic 93-67 win over Arellano.

Six Cardinals scored in twin digits with Noah Lugo doing a little of everything and Justin Serrano putting up big numbers to lead their team in their demolition of the Chiefs.

The Cardinals, who opened up with five straight losses, suddenly became a contender as they tied the Blazers at fifth place with a 6-6 slate.

Gamely engaging the Cardinals three-fourths of the way, the Chiefs lost steam in the endgame when Justin Arana and Kent Salado started to miss.

The Chiefs dropped to 3-10 (win-loss).