Lions oust Pirates, book Final Four ticket

Games Friday

(The Arena, San Juan)

12 p.m. – Letran vs St. Benilde (jrs/srs)

4 p.m. – Jose Rizal vs San Sebastian (srs/jrs)

MANILA, Philippines – San Beda has never missed the NCAA Final Four the last eight seasons. The Lions made sure they will not miss this one.

Drawing strength from other sources when Nigerian Ola Adeogun struggled, San Beda outlasted Lyceum in a bruising 76-60 victory to book its ninth straight Final Four appearance in the 90th NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City Wednesday.

Arthur dela Cruz had 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists while Fil-Aussie Anthony Semerad scattered 13 when Adeogun managed just nine points and six boards as the Lions booked a 13th win against two losses and a trip to the playoff round for the ninth straight season.

"Our goal is to make it to the top two and hope to win a five-peat for San Beda," said San Beda coach Boyet Fernandez, whose charges have also advanced to the finals the last eight years, winning seven including the last four.

Fernandez though was far from impressed.

"We're lucky Lyceum played a bad game. We committed many turnovers and we were outrebounded offensively," he said.

San Beda's struggles were rooted from how the 6-8 Adeogun, one of the league's MVP statistical race leaders, played.

Adeogun was saddled with early foul trouble and lost his cool twice after being assessed a flagrant and a technical foul in the first half.

Good thing Dela Cruz and Semerad stepped up to fill the Adeogun void.

Joseph Gabayni paced the Pirates with 22 points but his effort was not enough to prevent his team from absorbing a ninth defeat against six wins and getting eliminated out of the Final Four.

The scores:

San Beda 76 – Dela Cruz 18, A. Semerad 13, Amer 9, Adeogun 9, Mendoza 8, Pascual 7, Tongco 5, Koga 4, Sara 2, D. Semerad 1, Mocon 0

Lyceum 60 – Gabayni 22, Baltazar 8, Taladua 7, Zamora 6, Mbida 5, Malabanan 5, Elmerjab 3, Bulawan 2, Maconocido 2, Pamulaklakin 0, Soliman 0, Lesmoras 0

Quarterscores: 19-14; 35-28; 57-42; 76-60