San Beda evades upset, ousts Perpetual

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

San Beda escaped the tough challenge from Perpetual and scored a 55-50 victory in the NCAA Season 93 men’s basketball tournament Tuesday at Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.

The Red Lions survived the gallant stand from the pesky Altas as they were forced to play in the low-scoring affair before pulling out their 13th straight win and improve to 14-1.

Robert Bolick paced San Beda with 15 points, five rebounds, and two assists, while Donald Tankoua got 14 markers and nine boards.

AC Soberano also shot 2-of-5 from three to wound up with nine points, while Javee Mocon got eight markers and 14 rebounds in the win.

“We’re happy we got this win, but we got to go back and think about our priorities,” said coach Boyet Fernandez, obviously disappointed with how the Red Lions played against the Altas.

“We only had 11 assists and that’s too low for a San Beda basketball team. Our defense stepped up, but our offense is questionable. We have to go back and review everything. We had a really hard time playing against Perpetual, they’re well-coached. We’re happy we got this one.”

With Perpetual making a huge run late after back-to-back layups from Keith Pido to cut the San Beda lead down to five, 49-44, San Beda went to Tankoua in the last four minutes as he made two timely buckets to quash the uprising.

Bolick then put the finishing touches as he canned his freebies in the final minute while also blocking Flash Sadiwa’s late attempt.

The Altas fourth straight loss eliminated them out of the playoff race with their 4-10 record.

Pido, AJ Coronel, and Gab Dagangon all had nine points and four rebounds in the losing effort.

The San Beda defense held Perpetual main man Prince Eze to just eight markers and 11 boards in the loss.

The Scores:

SAN BEDA 55 – Bolick 15, Tankoua 14, Soberano 9, Mocon 8, Cabanag 6, Noah 3, Abuda 0, Adamos 0, Bahio 0, Doliguez 0, Oftana 0, Presbitero 0, Tongco 0.

PERPETUAL 50 – Coronel 9, Dagangon 9, Pido 9, Eze 8, Ylagan 7, Sadiwa 3, Lucente 2, Yuhico 2, Mangalino 1, Singontiko 0, Tamayo 0.

Quarters: 11-11, 27-19, 43-34, 55-50.