NCAA Player Of The Week: Garvo Lanete

It’s very rare to have a player who can step up and deliver the goods at any given time.But it’s a privilege San Beda College has with veteran guard Garvo Lanete, who powered last year’s runnerup Red Lions to its 12th straight wins in as many outings in the 86th NCAA seniors basketball competition.

Playing without it’s veteran court general Borgie Hermida, who had a fever, Lanete filled the leadership void for the Red Lions and steered the Mendiola-based squad pass the scrappy Mapua Cardinals, 90-78, Wednesday.

The 21-year old, 4th year guard buried his personal season-high 30 points, including 13 in the fourth period, in the hard fought battle to preserve San Beda’s immaculate record and emerged as the hands down choice for the Accel/FilOil NCAA Press Corps Player of the Week award presented by Gatorade and Terrilicious Meat Products.

“He played a monster game,” said San Beda coach Frankie Lim of his ward, who pocketed his second POW award this season.

San Beda took control of the game early but when the Cardinals sparked a furious rally and trimmed down their deficit to seven with eight and a half minutes left in the fourth, Lanete took matters into his own hands when he nailed five straight points in the decisive 11-2 run to finally take the fight out of Mapua.

“Pamatay-sunog, that’s what Garvo is,” added Lim.

The win pushed the Red Lions closer on snaring a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four or four wins away from completing a sweep in the eliminations for an automatic best-of-three finals appearance.

Lanete edged Nate Matute of Jose Rizal U Heavy Bombers, Letran’s Kristoffer Alas and San Sebastian’s Calvin Abueva for the weekly citation given by a group of scribes from the country's leading broadsheets and tabloids covering the beat.