SAN BEDA drew first blood in its long standing rivalry with Letran in the NCAA Season 101 after taking a clinical 68-58 win on Sunday at the Playtime Filoil Center in San Juan.
Playing in his first rivalry match, Janti Miller came up big for the Red Lions as he finished with 22 points and five rebounds while making two key plays on both ends in the clutch to preserve San Beda's lead.
Miller came away with a big block on Mark Omega with 50 seconds which would've cut San Beda's lead to just four. On the next possession, the Fil-American recruit delivered the coup-de-grace, a driving lay-up which gave the Red Lions a 66-58 lead with 33 seconds remaining.
"They've been running that same elevator screen and dump-off the whole game and something just clicked [for me] which is to drop and just jump," Miller said of that big defensive play in the end.
"I thought I goaltended it cause they've been calling goaltending on my blocks all year so I'm glad they didn't call that," he continued. "Then as for the bucket, I was just [thinking] to go get it."
All effort for Red Lions
It was basically a grind out affair between two teams with both squads struggling to find buckets all game long.
In the end, San Beda did just enough to pull away with a Penny Estacio three giving them a 60-50 lead halfway through the fourth, before holding on 'til the end to get their second win in as many games in the so-called 'Group of Death' Group B.
The effort of his boys wasn't lost on coach Yuri Escueta.
"I'm very happy. Hopefully we play like this everytime. Yung effort namin defensively, how we followed the gameplan and how we controlled the rebounding, that's all effort," Escueta said as the Red Lions had a 51-36 edge on rebounding which resulted to 13 second chance points for them.
Bryan Sajonia chipped in 11 points for the Red Lions while Jimmy Reyes and Bismarck Lina added six apiece.
Zed Etulle made up for his woeful shooting from the field as he grabbed 12 boards, had two steals and swatted away two shots in a solid defensive effort for the rookie.
Titing Manalili paced Letran with 13 points, six assists and two steals while Deo Cuajaon added 10 but the pair had little support as Jimboy Estrada was limited to just five points while Jun Roque was also held to four.
With the loss, the Knights dropped to the bottom of the group with an 0-2 record.
The scores:
SAN BEDA 68 – Miller 22, Sajonia 11, Lina 6, Reyes 6, Gonzales 5, Celzo 5, Etulle 4, Estacio 3, Puno 2, Bonzalida 2, Culdora 2, Songcuya 0, Jalbuena 0
LETRAN 58 – Manalili 13, Cuajao 10, Rosilio 7, Buensalida 6, Estrada 5, Omega 5, Santos 4, Roque 4, Tapenio 3, Gazzingan 1, Gammad 0
Quarters: 22-18, 37-34, 53-45, 68-58
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