San Beda Too Strong For St.Benilde

San Beda wasted no time putting the outcome beyond doubt this time.

Taken to the limit in their first meeting, the Red Lions coasted to a 65-46 victory over College of St. Benilde on Thursday to claim the provisional lead in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan.

The three-time defending champion Red Lions underscored their status as the league’s best defensive team, limiting the listless Blazers to a measly two points in the first quarter where they zoomed to a 23-point lead that practically took the fight out of their opponents.

The Red Lions thus notched an 11th triumph in 13 games that put them a half-game ahead of archrival Letran.

“As I’ve said as always, I credit this game to the players. They played defense and they realized that our system is to play defense They started strong and the aggressiveness is there. I credit my starting five (Baser Amer, Ola Adeogun, Yvan Ludovice, Art Dela Cruz and Rome Dela Rosa) because they stepped their defense up. I also give credit to my players coming off the bench for stepping up. It was total team effort,” said Red Lions coach Boyet Fernandez, whose wards had to lean on the buzzer-beating alley-oop finished by Art dela Cruz to escape with a 71-70 win over the Blazers in the first round.

Dela Cruz stood at the forefront of the Red Lions onslaught anew as he emerged as the lone double-digit scorer with 14 points, while four others scored at least seven points.

The Blazers dropped to a 5-8 win-loss card in seventh place.

In one of the worst scoring outputs in a quarter in recent memory, the Blazers failed to make any of their 14 field goal attempts in the first period, with all their two points coming from the charity stripe by Jonathan Grey.

Benilde, which shot just 29 percent from the field overall, tried to make a comeback, but came no closer than 19 points.

“Again, we had 18 turnovers but we limited them to just eight turnover points. We really have to go for those rebounds as we gave CSB 12 offensive boards. Also, if we want to go further, we have to control our emotions. I credit the referees for taking good care of the game. Sana, macontrol din ng players ang emotions nila especially Abarcar,” added Fernandez.

The incident Fernandez was referring to was when JR Ongteco hammered Francis Abarcar to the floor. The Blazer was called for an unsportsmanlike foul whie Abarcar was restrained from creating a bigger scene due to the foul.

In juniors game, Red Cubs trounce junior rival LSGH Greenies to remain unbeaten 86-71. The Taytay based dribblers notched their 13th straight this season.

source: Spin.ph/Inboundpass

photo: Pula