Red Lions, Stags Stay Atop With 2nd Win

MANILA, Philippines - San Sebastian held Perpetual Help scoreless in the last two minutes as it hacked out a come-from-behind 73-69 victory and shared lead with San Beda in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City yesterday.

The Red Lions matched the Stags’ 2-0 start with a 97-55 rout of a hapless Emilio Aguinaldo College side in the other senior game.

American Sudan Daniel unleashed 18 points, 18 rebounds and three shot blocks while Rome dela Rosa fired 18 points and Borgie Hermida added 17 points, six assists, four boards and three steals to power the Lions to the lopsided win.

The former three-peat champions broke away from a tight first quarter as they asserted their might on both sides of the court to post a 48-25 bulge at the turn en route to the victory.

The Generals joined the Altas in the cellar at 0-2.

The Stags took the Altas lightly and nearly paid for it, needing to fight back from eight points down to frustrate their rivals and post their second straight win in the 86th staging of the tournament.

The Stags played a listless and individual game majority of the way, missing 41 of 68 shots while bungling 18 of 32 charities, enabling the Altas to wrest control from the second quarter up to the fourth.

“We rushed our shots, everybody wants to shoot and no one is passing the ball around and we missed a lot of free throws,” said San Sebastian coach Ato Agustin.

“If not for our defense, we might have lost this one,” he said.

Perpetual Help, led by Jet Vidal’s 14 points, had indeed all the chances to snatch the win but simply cracked in the face of the Stags’ tough defense down the stretch and slid to 0-2.

George Allen, a transferee from Philippine Christian U, hit a triple to give Perpetual Help a 61-53 lead early in the last period.

But the Stags clamped down on defense and made some key hits in the clutch to snatch the win.

In juniors’ action, reigning titlist San Beda downed EAC, 85-60, and San Sebastian edged Perpetual Help, 74-69, to share the lead at 2-0.

Baser Amer came up with 10 points, 15 caroms, eight steals and six assists while Von Chavez shot 18 points and hauled down seven rebounds to power the Cubs to their second win in a row.

Gino Jumao-as paced the Staglets with 26 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists.

Joey Villar, Philippine Star