Senior Final 4 a Go, Junior Finals Set

By Joseph W Buduan of www.gameface.ph

Developments off the court influenced the Elite 8 stage of this year’s Nike Summer League – not the least of which was the withdrawal of Ateneo De Manila from the senior division competitions. Without Ateneo, only two UAAP schools – the Nike-sponsored Far Eastern University Tamaraws and the Adamson University Falcons – saw action in the Elite 8. After the quarterfinals dust had settled, only FEU remained of the UAAP contingent. Now the senior division competitions move on to the Final 4, with three NCAA schools joining the Tamaraws: the Letran Knights, the San Beda Red Lions and the San Sebastian Golden Stags.

SAN BEDA VERSUS FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY

NCAA grand slam champion San Beda finally finished their quarterfinal game against the Lyceum Pirates. A game that began last week, ended by a damp and slippery court brought about by the pounding micro monsoons of the week previous, was finally finished as of this writing. San Beda pulled off the runaway 86 – 70 victory as Lyceum ran out of gas midway into the payoff fourth quarter.

Last week, before the rains put a stop to the proceedings, Lyceum fought all the way back from as many as 18 points down to end the first half at 37-35 behind the hot perimeter shooting of guard Joseph Abaya and forward Reggie Rimando. It seems stopping the game at that point totally took any momentum out of the Pirates. As the game started at the second half with that score from last week, the Pirates didn’t look as sharp. They knotted the count at 45-all midway through the third period only to see the Red Lions drop a 10-0 run to make it 55-45.

By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Garvo Lanete, JR Tecson and Sudan Daniels had built as much as a 67-48 cushion. That allowed the defending NCAA champions enough leeway to cruise to the W in spite of the repeated attempts of Lyceum to rally. Bam Gamalinda led all scorers with 14 points for a balanced San Beda attack, while Abaya led Lyceum with 13 markers.

FEU on the other hand had a cakewalk against surprise quarterfinalist Perpetual Help. With the Tamaraws at full strength including all three of their Smart Gilas national players there was just no way the Altas were going to be in this one. FEU was merciless in pounding out the 89 – 51 victory. Mark Barroca had 16 points and four steals for FEU. Raffy Ynion tossed in 15 points and nine rebounds for Perpetual Help.

It should be one heck of a match between the two top Nike-sponsored teams in college basketball. Size-wise it should be a good match up front as 6-foot-7 American import Sudan Daniels goes up against a trio of talented Tamaraw big men in 6-foot-5 Reil Cervantes, 6-foot-6 Aldrech Ramos and 6-foot-6 Glen Eguilos. FEU should have the edge at the perimeter though, as FEU boasts tall and agile swingmen such as JR Cawaling, Jun Tanuan and Paul Sanga, all of whom are at least 6-foot-3.

LETRAN COLLEGE VERSUS SAN SEBASTIAN COLLEGE

In this all-NCAA match, these two teams went through wringers to get to the Final 4, and now one of them has to go.

San Sebastian survived a last-minute surge by the Jose Rizal University Heavy Bombers 77 – 75. Early on it looked like the Golden Stags would have an easy time with the Heavy Bombers as the red and gold went up by double digits right off the bat at 15-4 behind the hot hands of veterans Anthony Del Rio, Jimbo Aquino and Gilbert Bulawan.

Then action started getting a little hotter and harder than any one would have preferred. JRU swingman John Wilson and San Sebastian rookie forward Ronald Pascual got whistled for double-technical fouls when Wilson swung an elbow into Pascual and Pascual retaliated, all right in front of veteran referee Boyong Manalac. Not two minutes later, Pamboy Raymundo and Jay Bulangis got into an arm twisting match during an inbound and were also whistled for technical fouls. Raymundo wasn’t done yet though as he got caught deliberately tripping Bulangis, for which he was called for an unsportsmanlike foul. Tournament director Tany Gonzalez then summoned head coaches Ariel Vanguardia and Ato Agustin for an impromptu on-court conference. “I warned them that if these things continued we would toss people,” explained Gonzalez. And to think this was just all in the first period.

San Sebastian went on to lead by as much as 63-44 late in the third period. Going into the last two and a half minutes though, JRU suddenly came to life. Marvin Hayes became more aggressive driving into the lane and brought the lead down to single digits 71-63. Wilson then made it 72-70 with about a minute and change. Dave Najorda responded with clutch freethrows and hard-fought offensive rebounds though as the Stags hung on for the W. Wilson had a heck of a game with a high of 22 points. Aquino had 13 and Bulawan 12 for the Stags.

Letran went on a late-game surge behind superstar RJ Jazul to overcome Adamson 55 – 46. With the Falcons leading for close to 35 of the 40 game minutes, the Knights had to dig deep to pull off this critical victory and make the Final 4. It was a low-scoring game that featured a lot of tough defense as the first period ended at only 14-12.

Adamson threatened to get some separation in the second period though. In the last couple of minutes the Falcons looked to have the game well in hand at 35-27. That was when Letran made its move, as Jazul, rookie swingman Kevin Alas and veteran forward Rey Guevarra brought the Knights the 36-35 lead. Jazul, who was content to set up teammates up to that point, put on a nasty dribbling and slashing display to make it 48-42. It did not help that Adamson’s African import Austin Manara failed to make a single freethrow in eight attempts in the last three and a half minutes just as Letran made its move.

In the end the steadier Knights held off the taller and slightly-favored Falcons by keeping the score low and hanging in there. Guevarra had 14 points to lead Letran while Yambot was the closest to come to double digits for Adamson with only nine points. If Letran can show the same patience, intensity on defense and resilience, the Stags may get a bigger fight than they bargained for.

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Santo Tomas and Letran will dispute the junior division title of the 2009 Nike Summer League this Wednesday morning at the FEU Gym in Manila. UST cruised to the 81 – 66 victory against the JRU Light Bombers behind the 22 points and 11 boards of Kyle Neypes. Jo Saret had a game-high 29 points but the Light Bombers were simply too off-kilter to stand up to the Tiger Cubs.

In the other Final 4 game, the Letran Squires once again ended the title aspirations of the Lasalle Zobel Junior Archers 83 – 81. It was quite a duel between Luigi De La Paz and Archie Inigo. De La Paz had 32 points while Inigo had 31 markers in the tightly-fought contest.