Roaring Lions eye 13th win vs Chiefs

MANILA, Philippines - San Beda tries to move within three wins from sweeping the double-round elims as it goes for win No. 13 against Arellano U in the 86th NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City today.

The Lions picked up their 12th win in a row with a 90-78 rout of the Mapua Cardinals last Sept. 8 and are raring to stretch their streak against a team trying to keep their slim hopes for a playoff for the last semis berth.

In sixth place with a 5-8 (win-loss) card, Arellano needs to sweep its last three games and hope that the fourth-running Mapua (8-5) drop their last three matches and fifth running Letran (6-8) won’t go over eight wins to force a playoff.

But the Red Lions go all out for another win in their 4 p.m. encounter as they try to sustain their streak and close in on the automatic finals berth.

“Our goal is to win as many games as we can and get enough momentum going into the playoffs,” said SBC coach Frankie Lim.

While admitting that the Lions have the edge over the Chiefs, Arellano U coach Leo Isaac said they would still go for an upset.

“We’ll just try to be competitive and if we could pull off an upset, why not?” Isaac said.

In the other game, Perpetual Help and St. Benilde, already out of it all with 0-13 and 4-10 records, respectively, clash at 2 p.m. in a non-bearing contest.