San Beda survives Letran to take game one of NCAA finals

MANILA, Philippines — San Beda barely survived Letran 62-60 but leaned on tough defense in clutch to get a headstart in the best-of-three finals of the 88th NCAA men’s basketball tournament Thursday at the Mall of Asian Arena.

Baser Amer did work for the Red Lions all game, finishing with 20 points, six rebounds and three assists — while Ryusei Koga, who led a game-changing run in the third, added nine markers.

“As expected (it was very very close), a different scenario compared to the eliminations,” said head coach Ronnie Magsanoc.

A triple from Koga with a little over a minute left gave San Beda enough cushion to withstand whatever Letran threw at them in the dying seconds.

But it was Red Lions defense in the final 20 seconds — not letting the Knights to even get a game-tying, or victor- clinching shot off — that keyed in their win.

“In the end, we were able to build a buffer at kahit nakabalik pa sa sila; we were able to protect it,” said Magsanoc of his squad’s performance down the stretch.

Down by just a bucket after a three-point swing in just 30 seconds, Letran had a chance to swing the game to its favor but Alas lost the leather as he was going for the pass.

“We all know that basketball was a game of execution, but we weren’t able to execute down the wire,” said the Knights head coach Louie Alas.

Alas finished with a team-best 18 points, but all but three of his total was scored in the first half.

“We expected that Kevin was going to struggle in the second half, because every time he touches the ball, there’s a double team,” Alas said.