Round one face-off between the Stags and the Red Lions for the top spot; JRU vs Mapua for the curtain-raiser

San Sebastian and San Beda stake their unblemished slate as the two collide tomorrow in what could be a sneak preview of this year’s finals in the 86th NCAA basketball tournament before an expected huge crowd at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Stags and the Lions, last year’s championship antagonists with the former sweeping the latter in two games, are currently unscathed after seven games and the winner in their much-anticipated 4 p.m. encounter would complete a first round sweep. “We’re expecting a tough, very intense game,” said San Sebastian coach Ato Agustin.

“Excited to play San Sebastian. We should play with a lot of heart and determination to beat them. I told my boys that it will never be easy beating them,” San Beda mentor Frankie Lim, for his part, said.

“Just leave everything on that floor and good things will happen,” he added.

The league is anticipating a big turnout, probably the biggest to date this season.

So big that Management Committee chair Frank Gusi of host San Sebastian announced last week they’re selling separate tickets for the San Sebastian-San Beda duel as well as the Mapua-Jose Rizal match at 10 a.m.

While the Stags and the Lions contest the top spot, the Cardinals and the Bombers, tied at third on identical 5-2 (win-loss) slates, are gunning for solo third.

San Sebastian is shooting to duplicate its feat last year of sweeping the first round and even went 15 straight games without a loss until getting ambushed along the way that prevented it from three games away from sweeping its way straight to the finals.

San Sebastian eventually ended up the champion after beating San Beda twice in the finals, which still rankled in the hearts of the Lions.

“It’s all in the past now, its time to look at the present and I feel we have a stronger chance now,” said Lim.

Truly, San Beda looked the more dominant team after emerging with the best rookie class of the season in Fil-Aussie brothers Anthony and David Semerad, former RP youth standouts Jaypee Mendoza and California-based 6-5 Kyle Pascual and University of the East transferee Jess Villahermosa.

San Sebastian, for its part, seemed to struggle in some of their games probably because of the absence of last year’s top scorer Jimbo Aquino and injuries to big men Ian Sangalang and Dave Najorda.

But the Lions may have found the Stags as their toughest schedule this year.

“Don’t forget, they’re not the defending champions for nothing and no matter what we say, they’re still the defending champions,” said Lim.

San Sebastian has the high-leaping, energetic duo of Calvin Abueva and Ronald Pascual.

Abueva is currently leading the way in the MVP statistical race being No. 2 in scoring and No. 1 in rebounding with averages of 15.7 points and 11.7 rebounds a game while Pascual is No. 5 in scoring with a 14.3-point norm.

For San Beda, it’s going to be the troika of American behemoth Sudan Daniel, Borgie Hermida and Garvo Lanete that should give San Sebastian the biggest problems.

The 6-7 Daniel is tops in blocks and No. 3 in rebounds with norms of 3.9 and 10.1, respectively, while Hermida, playing his fifth and last year, is best in assists, norming 5.4 a game.

Lanete, for his part, is sixth in the league in scoring as he averaged 14 points a game.