San Beda makes history in NCAA Basketball

San Beda’s win against defending champion San Sebastian Stags couldn’t be sweeter. San Beda has made history by sweeping all 16 games in the elimination round of NCAA season 86. Yesterday’s match may be a preview of this year’s finals. San Beda is on the top spot with 16 wins while San Sebastian won 13 games and lost the remaining 3 games.

It was a rough game.  Players from both teams were battling aggressively for the rebound or to get the position in the paint. Everyone is hungry for the one and the defense from both teams were not lacking. Sudan Daniel, the foreign exchange student from San Beda was a key to their win with 23 points and 5 blocks while another San Beda player, Garvo Lanete, contributed 23 points as well.

JRU and Mapua would meet on Monday to decide who will challenge San Sebastian on Wednesday. The San Beda is already waiting for the school who would reach the finals. They enjoy a thrice to beat advantage against the challenger. Pretty tall order right?

But don’t count San Sebastian out just yet. They will bank on their championship experience to retain the title. Chances are quite slim but miracles sometimes happens in the game of basketball. San Beda's challenger would have need to double their effort to retain the title. Make that triple since they have to beat San Beda thrice. I have seen teams with unbeaten records during the elimination round and end up losing in the championship. Ateneo lost twice against FEU this year but ended up beating the later twice to take home the championship. Another example is UE. UE never lost a single game during the eliminations. They lost in the finals against La Salle. It all comes down to who wants the championship more.