St. Benilde, CEU in knockout duel

MANILA, Philippines — Go for Gold-College of Saint Benilde and Centro Escolar U slug it out in a do-or-die battle for the last semifinal ticket in the PBA D-League at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig today.

Momentum is on the side of last year’s Foundation Cup titlist Scratchers after they stripped the Scorpions of their win-once quarters advantage Tuesday to force the winner-take-all match at 4 p.m.

Gab Banal, instrumental in Go for Gold-CSB’s title drive last year, delivered anew in his return, coming through with the winning trey to wrest the 84-81 victory.

The Scratchers could have spared themselves from trouble, however, had they not lost hold of their 20-point third quarter lead.

“When you start getting careless and not pay attention to details, that happens. So I trust our players and our staff to take care of business come Game Two,” said Go for Gold-CSB coach Charles Tiu.

The winner will face St. Clare College-Virtual Reality in the semis next week.