Lions, Knights up vs UAAP's top 2

Collegiate glamor teams Ateneo, La Salle, San Beda and Letran make up the Final Four cast of the Fil-Oil Flying V Champions League Final Challenge.

The Red Lions and the Knights overcame the Arellano Chiefs and the Far Eastern U Tamaraws, respectively, yesterday to arrange a pair of NCAA versus UAAP duels against the Archers and the Eagles in the semifinal round of the elite tourney Saturday at The Arena in San Juan.

San Beda wore down Arellano, 87-72, on a sleek running game while Letran, scoring heavily from afar, upended FEU, 94-93, in the last two matches of the quarterfinals of the event sponsored by Fil-Oil, Flying V, Smart-PLDT, KFC, Adidas, Accel, Greenwich and The Philippine STAR.

Bam Gamalinda and Garvo Lanete took charge for San Beda after Borgie Hermida was injured late in the third quarter then Sam Ekwe fouled out with four minutes left to play.

Gamalinda and Lanete combined for 14 points in the fourth quarter, fueling the Lions’ breakaway en route to booking a semifinal encounter with the Archers.

“Arellano gave us a big scare. They really played well in the first half. Our full-court defense saved the day for us,” said San Beda coach Frankie Lim.

Hermida is a doubtful starter in the semis but Lim’s confident they will have a good chance of winning versus La Salle.

“The other guys have to step up and I’m sure they will do. It would be a pretty close match. I can’t say the other team has the edge over the other. It’s going be a tight game,” said Lim.

The Knights sizzled with 16 triples on a remarkable 57-percent shooting with the last, courtesy of John Melegrito, breaking a 91-all deadlock with time down to 15.1 seconds.

“It’s not in our game plan. I was thinking if the scoring hit more than 75, we would lose the game. The team’s three-point shooting spelled the difference,” said Letran coach Louie Alas.

“Credit also goes to my big guys. They didn’t score much but they didn’t let their FEU counterparts score too. FEU’s big guys had always been our problem before. In a way, this game is a good preparation for us against Ateneo. Both Ateneo and FEU are more of a post-team,” Alas also said.

Forward Rey Guevarra was 4-of-4 from the three-point land and finished with a game-high 20 points that went with two assists and one rebound in 22 minutes off action.