San Beda Red Cubs Gore Lyceum Juniors By 135 Points

Three-peat seeking San Beda was expected to dismantle Lyceum in its 87th NCAA juniors basketball debut.

But winning by 135 points was still a surprise.

The Red Cubs terrorized the Junior Pirates by holding them scoreless in the first quarter, which ended at 44-0, then continued to pound on the hapless guest team for a whopping 163-28 rout at The Arena in San Juan.

Eight players scored in double figures for the squad of coach Brit Reroma, as the Taytay, Rizal-based cagers became the first team since 2009 to win by at least 100 points.

It was also the 2008 edition of San Beda that pulled off the trick, when the squad led by former high school stars Dan Sara, Art dela Cruz, Ralph Nayve and current Red Lions rookie Baser Amer demolished the Angeles University Foundation juniors team, 168-24, on August 31, 2009.

That game saw Sara, who played his first UAAP game for La Salle on Sunday, scoring 30 points while Amer posted 18 points, 10 assists and 10 steals.

Almost two years after that contest, it was Van Abatayo who led the Red Cubs with 24 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Ranbill Tongco had 20 points.

Francis Munsayac added 19 points, four rebounds, eight assists and three steals, Daryl Nazareno tallied 17 points, seven assists and three steals and Francis Abarcar posted 16 points, three rebounds, eight assists and six steals.

The players, except Munsayac, did these feats in just 15 minutes of action each. From there, it was mostly the second unit that continued the onslaught against the smaller and inexperienced Junior Pirates squad.

Lyceum just opened its high school in General Trias, Cavite and is still years away from becoming competitive in the NCAA.

But the huge loss obviously stunned a team that lost their first two games to CSB-La Salle Greenhills and Perpetual Help, respectively, by a total margin of 150 points.

Generoso Cecilio gave Lyceum its first point of the game when he sank his second freethrow with 9:45 left to make it 44-1. The Junior Pirates would then score five more points in the second quarter to trail 76-6 at the half.

The scores:

SAN BEDA 163 - Abatayo 24, Tongco 20, Munsayac 19, Nazareno 17, Abarcar 16, dela Costa 12, Oledo 11, Tolentino 10, Miranda 8, Macapayag 8, Patenio 6, Lunas 5, Tee 3, Babilonia 2, Bonsubre 2.

LYCEUM 28 - Menil 7, Romanes 6, Gavino 5, Lagman 5, Pere 4, Cecilio 1, Verdad 0, Ligot 0.

Quarters: 44-0; 76-6; 117-19; 163-28.