Lions face Bombers; Stags play Cardinals

MANILA, Philippines - Defending champion San Beda and rival San Sebastian shoot for their eighth straight victories today against separate opponents in the 87th NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Red Lions tangle with slumping Jose Rizal University (2-4) at 4 p.m. while the Golden Stags collide with an unpredictable Mapua side (2-5) at 2 p.m. in a twinbill that serves as prelude to their much-anticipated showdown next week.

The Lions, though, will hit the court sans starting forward Jake Pascual, who will serve out his one-game suspension. Pascual’s flagrant foul-1 sanction for hitting MIT’s Yousef Taha in SBC’s 74-68 triumph last Friday was upgraded to FF-penalty 2 by NCAA commissioner Aric del Rosario, meriting today’s sit-out.

With the 6-3 Pascual (six points and 9.1 rebounds per game) on the sidelines, San Beda will rely on Kyle Pascual, Dave Marcelo, Anthony and David Semerad to patrol the lanes.

Although enjoying the edge, SBC coach Frankie Lim said they shouldn’t count out the Bombers, who are raring for an upset especially coming off back-to-back losses to St. Benilde (77-78) and Perpetual (77-79).

“JRU is coming off a bad loss and they might release their anger against us. So we expect a tough fight,” said Lim.

The Bombers yielded their last two games via game-winning layups by their rivals, first by Perpetual’s George Allen and then by St. Benilde’s Carlo Lastimosa.

The Lions had a rather scary six-point win over the Cardinals, something that Lim feels would be beneficial to his second unit.

“Close games like that helps a lot, especially to my new guys like DJ Semerad. Even Anjo (Caram) who didn’t play that much last year because of Borg (Hermida), he’s playing well. Our guys off the bench have improved and they’re now playing major minutes, having a bigger responsibility for the team,” said Lim.

Similarly expected to encounter rough sailing are the Stags of coach Topex Robinson.

“Mapua’s playing pretty well; they just struggled in the start. They have a seasoned coach in Chito Victolero and Taha’s playing pretty well. There’s also (Allan) Mangahas and the rest of guys. We’ll try to contain them as mush as possible. We know that they’re playing good basketball as of this moment,” he said.