Red Cubs complete 18-game sweep

MANILA, Philippines - San Beda accomplished what it had failed to do last year as it whipped rival San Sebastian, 96-68, to complete a record 18-game sweep of the elimination round for an outright spot in the finals of the 87th NCAA high school basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City yesterday.

Francis Abarcar and Daryl Nazareno led SBC’s attack with 15 and 10 points, respectively, as the Red Cubs headed straight to the best-of-five finale with an automatic 1-0 edge as an incentive for the rare sweep.

“Our goal is to win the championship, sweep or not, and we’re two wins away from achieving it,” said San Beda coach Britt Reroma in Filipino.

Reroma is also hoping to give the school its 19th championship.

If the Cubs, tied with the Mapua Red Robins with 18 crowns, ended up with a sweep, they would be the third San Beda team to do so after an Ato Tolentino-mentored 2002 team, headed by now Powerade rookie JV Casio, and the 2003 squad also swept their way to the championship.

“We know we will make history if we win the championship this year because San Beda will be leaving Mapua behind,” said Reroma.

It was also sweet revenge for the Cubs since it was the same Raymond Valenzona-coached team that dealt the former its only loss last season, thus foiling the Cubs’ sweep bid.

“We couldn’t forget that experience that’s why we showed San Sebastian a lot of respect in this game because we don’t want last year’s loss to happen again,” said Reroma.

The sweep thus sent No. 2 Letran (14-4), No. 3 La Salle-Greenhills (13-5) and No. 4 Emilio Aguinaldo (12-6) into a stepladder semis for the right to challenge San Beda for the crown.

San Sebastian fell to its 10th loss against eight wins to finish sixth overall.                  

The scores:

San Beda 96 – Abarcar 14, Da. Nazareno 10, Dela Costa 9, Bonsubre 9, Tolentino 8, Lunas 8, Patenio 7, Tongco 6, Munsayac 6, Miranda 5, Abatayo 4, Macapayag 4, Babilonia 2, Oleodo 2, Tee 2

San Sebastian 68 – Balid 15, Macasaet 15, Pante 15, Castor 6, Gayosa 5, Costelo 4, Calisaan 4, Rivera 3, Magno 1, Escalambre 0, Parina 0, Velasco 0, Libunao 0, Dyke 0, Miasco 0

Quarterscores: 22-15; 45-31; 74-43; 96-68