Pirates arrange title clash vs Doves

Lyceum of the Philippines earned a third straight trip to the finals of the National Collegiate Regional Athletic Association (NCRAA) men’s basketball tournament by whipping Colegio de San Lorenzo, 89-74, in their sudden-death match at the Pearl Plaza gym.

Their second win over the Griffins in three days paved the way for the Pirates to have a third successive crack at two-time defending champion St. Francis of Assisi College Doves. Game 1 of the best-of-three title series is on Tuesday.

"Hindi namin ibibigay ng ganun-ganun lang ang championship ngayong taon sa St. Francis. Nakakadalawa na sila sa amin," said Lyceum coach Bay Cristobal, whose Pirates were just within a win of bagging last year’s championship only to lose the series after a big Doves comeback in the final two games.

Unbeaten in 16 games, the top-ranked Doves clinched a 10th successive finals stint by making short work of Rizal Technological University, 78-63, in the other Final Four pairing of the meet’s 10th edition supported by Airfreight 2100, Villa de Oro-Boracay and www.university.com/ncraa.

Ranked third entering the Final Four, the Pirates needed to beat in succession a Griffins side responsible for denying them the No. 2 spot after a 77-74 upset during their quarterfinal match up.