MANILA, Philippines — San Beda struck hard early and then rolled to a 63-36 championship-clinching victory over College of St. Benilde-A in the 9th Fr. Martin Cup Collegiate Open basketball competition.
Ryusei Koga and Art de la Cruz stepped up to the plate in the winner-take-all finals at the Trinity University gymnasium and towed the Red Lions to their fourth consecutive title.
Koga and de la Cruz, along with Rome Dela Rosa, starred in a telling 12-0 blast to start the fourth which just padded onto San Beda’s lead 56-30.
With their relentless efforts in keeping the Red Lions in front all match long, Koga and de la Cruz led with 18 and 14 points, in that order.
Koga’s trey with 4:33 in the third gave the chance for San Beda to widen its gap 36-18 after back to back buckets from de la Cruz to cap the game that gave them a huge halftime edge.
“Gigil sila nung umpisa (They’re so eager at the very start). They wanted to win it right away. But they finally settled down with their shots in the third, that’s the time they were getting their shots in. Then, we knew we were going to get it in the fourth,” said Red Lions assistant coach JB Sison, who was allowed by head coach Boyet Fernandez to call the shots.
The Blazers, who played sans wingman Paolo Taha, were limited to just eight points in the payoff period.
Ola Adeogun barely made a mark offensively, finishing with just four points, but still controlled the glass before he was thrown out, along with four others, with only 30 seconds left to play.
Even with the outcome already decided, two teams still got into a scuffle ignited by a heated play between Dave Moralde and St. Benilde center Robert Bartolo.
The scores:
San Beda 64 – Koga 18, de la Cruz 14, de la Rosa 7, Amer 6, Ludovice 6, Mendoza 4, Adeogun 4, Pascual 2, Abaracar 2, Bonsubre 1.
CSB-A 36 – Gray 10, Bartolo 9, Sinco 8, Romero 7, Carlos 2.
Quarters: 9-7, 26-14, 44-28, 64-36.