Red Lions try to nail Finals head start
MANILA—A pumped-up San Beda squad shoots for a historic 16-game elimination round sweep Wednesday when it tangles with defending champion San Sebastian in the 86th NCAA basketball tournament at the FilOil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
Gametime is at 4 p.m. with the Lions, sharp and ruthless right from the start of the season, looking to nail an automatic finals berth and leave the three other Final Four-bound teams in the stepladder semifinals.
Jose Rizal and Mapua hope to build momentum for the semifinals when they tangle at 12 noon.
With an 11-4 record, the Bombers will finish the elimination round in third regardless of the outcome of the game against the Cardinals, who booked a return trip to the Final Four after securing their ninth win in 15 games last week.
But the spotlight will be in the San Beda-San Sebastian tiff, which drew a sellout crowd in their first round meeting won by the Lions, 88-76.
If the Lions repeat, they will take advantage of a format change applied by the NCAA this season.
Under the new format, a team sweeps the elimination round, its Finals opponent has to beat it three times to claim the title. The team that swept the eliminations, however, only needs to win twice.
In short, if the Lions hold off the Stags, they will head straight to the Finals, where they will hold a 1-0 lead in a hypothetical best-of-five series.
If the Stags prevail, the regular Final Four format will be applied with San Beda and San Sebastian owning a twice-to-beat advantage over Mapua and Jose Rizal, respectively.
“It’s not going to be easy,” said San Beda coach Frankie Lim. “It’s the biggest game of the year for us. My challenge to my players is not to be satisfied. All the teams dream of a sweep.”
The Lions are oozing are confidence, winning all but one of their first 15 games via double-digit margins, including a 74-56 routing of Letran last Friday.
The same could not be said of the Stags, who have looked jittery in the second round.
Playing with little fire, San Sebastian fell to Arellano, 62-64, last Friday in the biggest upset of the season.
Ronald Pascual, who has missed at least three games in the second round because of a recurring fever, remains doubtful for the Stags.
Calvin Abueva, the leading candidate for the Most Valuable Player award, will lead the Stags, along with playmaker Pamboy Raymundo.
Stopping the duo of Abueva and Raymundo, Lim said, will be their recipe for success against the Stags.
“We have to stop them,” said Lim, who has been relying on solid performances from American recruit Sudan Daniel.
“We also want to control the boards. Once we control that, we get to do what we want to do.”
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