San Beda Stays Clean; Remains On Top

San Beda struggled with Mapua’s frontliners but recovered in time then turned to Dave Marcelo down the stretch to hack out a 74-68 win and grab the solo lead in the NCAA Season 87 men’s basketball tournament at the Arena yesterday.

“It was not easy for us, it was a hard win,” said coach Frankie Lim of SBC’s win No. 7. “We were beaten badly in rebounds and yet we won.”

The Cardinals used its height advantage to the fullest, fielding three frontliners most of the way to beat the Lions off the boards, 54-32. But the defending champions drew a big game from Marcelo who held his ground against Yousef Taha, Mark Sarangay and Michael Parala.

Marcelo also responded on the offensive end just when the Cardinals were threatening to steal the game, knocking down a basket on an “improvised play” to settle it, 72-68, with 27.2 second left.

“It’s about time he put up a big game,” Lim said of Marcelo (13 points and 12 rebounds). “I mean he battled three big men sometimes, Sarangay, Taha and Pascual or Parala, and Dave was my lone big. But he battled, we got to give it to him.”

Throwing the Lions off with their three-big men formation, the Cardinals enjoyed a 40-32 lead in the second period. But the Lions made some adjustments in the second half to seize control, 61-47.

“We had a huge third quarter, we limited them to seven points there and that was very big for us,” Lim said.

SBC scoring ace Garvo Lanete, despite being limited to six points through two quarters, finished with 18, including nine in the payoff period.

Allan Mangahas, who was chiefly responsible for chipping away SBC’s 10-point lead, topscored with 25 for MIT (2-5).