San Beda Books 9th Straight Finals Appearance #NCAA90
By Jamil Buergo
October 15, 2014
San Beda survived a fiery run by Perpetual to beat them, 81-75, in their Final Four match at the Season 90 NCAA basketball tournament at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
With the victory, the Red Lions aim for their fifth straight title against the winner of Arellano-JRU match. It will be their ninth straight finals appearance having won seven of the last eight.
For a while, the Red Lions seemed to cruise past the Altas easily by erecting a double digit lead in the early goings and led by as much as 26 points in the first half. But the Las-Pinas based dribblers came out strong in the second half to trim the lead to 11 going into the final quarter. Perpetual continued to catch up on their opponent in final quarter and managed to trim the deficit to five on Baloria’s free throws, 80-75 with only 19 seconds remaining. After an Amer split from the charity stripe, the Altas failed to score on their next possesion sealing the win for San Beda.
“It’s nice to be back in the finals but it’s not yet over. We still have to play and hopefully we get that 5-peat” an elated Coach Boyet said in the post-game interviews. He looks forward to seeing the other Final four match and see who they are going to play.
Anthony Semerad led San Beda with 18 points and 4 rebounds while Baser Amer scored 9 of his 17 points in the final quarter.
Leading MVP candidate Scottie Thompson paced Perpetual with another all-arounf performance of 20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Pro-bound Juneric Baloria and Harold Arboleda capped of their collegiate careers with 20 and 14 points respectively.
The scores:
San Beda 81 — A. Semerad 18, Amer 17, Adeogun 13, Mendoza 12, Dela Cruz 11, Pascual 6, Koga 2, Tonco 2, Sara 0, Abude 0, D. Semerad 0.
Perpetual 75 — Thompson 20, Baloria 20, Arboleda 14, Alano 11, Dagangon 7, Oliveria 2, Jolangcob 1, Dizon 0, Ylagan 0, Bantayan 0, Gallardo 0.
Quarterscores: 22-7, 44-18, 55-44, 81-75
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