THE FIVE-TIME defending champions San Beda Red Lions kept their bid for a sixth straight title alive with a 68-61 win over the Letran Knights in Game 2 of the NCAA men’s basketball finals yesterday at the packed Mall of Asia Arena.
The Red Lions took advantage of a scoreless spell by the Knights down the stretch to hack out the win despite tallying a whopping 30 turnovers. The series is now tied at 1-1 and will be decided in a winner-take-all match tomorrow at the same venue.
Ola Adeogun paced San Beda with 14 points but it was Jayvee Mocon who stole the show in the third where he scored 11 of his 13 points to keep Letran at bay in spite of the hot shooting of guard Mark Cruz. Art dela Cruz bounced back from his subpar Game 1 and had 12 points and six assists while Baser Amer had nine markers and four dimes.
It was an intensely-fought match that was decided in the final minutes when Dan Sara canned a triple that padded San Beda’s lead to 66-60, 3:23 to go. Letran had several chances to get back into it but just couldn’t get anything going, missing free-throws and shots and committing a costly turnover with less than a minute left to seal their fate.
Cruz finished with 21 points while McJour Luib and Cebuano big man Jomari Sollano added 10 each.