BY ABBY TORALBA
TOP seed Mapua University downed No. 4 College of St. Benilde 78-67 yesterday in their Final Four battle and bagged the first finals slot in the 99th NCAA basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
The duo of Paolo Hernandez and Rookie-MVP frontrunner Clint Escamis powered the Cardinals with 22 and 21 points, respectively, while Marc Cuenco finished with 10 markers.
“Unang-una, maraming salamat sa ibinigay ng Panginoon na panalo sa ami ngayon, sa laro ngayon. Of course, siyempre, credit din sa CSB na maganda rin iyong game ngayon at hindi (naman nila) ibibigay samin nang ganoon kadali,” Mapua coach Randy Alcantara said.
The Cards, who reached the semifinals as No. 1 for the first time in history, are aching to end a 32-year title drought and will take on either No. 2 Lyceum or third-ranked San Beda University.
In the other game, the Lions stunned the Pirates with an 89-68 victory to forge a knockout match.
Jacob Cortez shone anew for San Beda with a new career-high of 28 points on 9-of-11 shooting, along with four boards and eight dimes, while Yukien Andrada and Nygel Gonzales added 12 markers apiece.
“I just told my players na we’re not even thinking about the championship, iyon ang totoo. Itong game lang na ito, di ba? We wanna stay in the present and get this first game. We’ll worry (about) the next game when we get there,” Lions strategist Yuri Escueta said.
“So ito lang, focus lang tayo sa game na ito and we know what we need to do. We have to lock in defensively and just focus on it para hindi na masyadong maraming iniisip pa.”
Graduating Blazers Migs Oczon and Miggy Corteza tallied 17 and 14 points, respectively, for CSB, while Prince Carlos scored 10.
Reigning MVP Will Gozum could only muster nine markers in his swan song for the Taft-based crew.
The deciding second game is set this Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
