NCAA: San Beda flaunts depth, overwhelms Lyceum

MANILA, Philippines—With its key players back, defending champion San Beda showed what it can do with almost a complete team.

The Red Lions, sans only Ola Adeogun, dumped the Lyceum Pirates, 82-67, Monday night in the NCAA Season 88 men’s basketball tournament at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan city.

“I think everybody was eager to play, everybody contributed and above all everybody sacrificed because we had to play every one ,” said San Beda head coach Ronnie Magsanoc, whose squad pulled off a 81-71 win over Arellano with just six players in its first game.

Art de la Cruz led the way with a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds to go along with five assists.

San Beda got off to a good start and was able to sustain its impressive showing to post a 25-point lead twice with the last one at 71-46 on a basket by Baser Amer.

Amer topscored with 17 points.

The Red Lions remain unbeaten at 2-0 while the Pirates reeled to their third straight defeat in as many games.

Adeogun missed the second of his four-game suspension.