Lions, Knights relive rivalry in MVP Cup

MANILA, Philippines - The Filoil Flying V Pre-Season MVP Cup fires off Saturday with an explosive three-game bill featuring the San Beda-Letran clash and the Ateneo-La Salle duel at the new Filoil Flying V Arena (formerly The Arena) in San Juan City.

Although focus will be on the grudge match between UAAP’s defending champion Ateneo and La Salle at 4 p.m., the San Beda-Letran encounter is also expected to generate interest with odds just about even between the top schools in the NCAA.

The Red Lions, who scored a three-peat in the NCAA last season and runner-up to last year’s Filoil Flying V champion UE, and the Knights, the league’s winningest team with 13 titles, square off at 2 p.m.

An hour-long opening ceremony will kick off this year’s edition of the pre-season tournament backed by The Philippine STAR, Adidas, Total Phils., Inc., Smart Sports, CDO, Pioneer Insurance, Inquirer, Filoil, Flying V, Astaro/Karspersky, Douwe Egberts, Brothers Burger, Shell, Gourmet Coffee, Cecon/Surbex, Kolin/Syntax, Standard Chartered, Jaycees, V-Star, V-8, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and Insular.

Univ. of the Phils. and Jose Rizal U collide in the 6:30 p.m. main game.

San Beda will be without Sam Ekwe, Ogie Menor and Pong Escobal. But the Mendiola-based dribblers remain a force to reckon with JR Taganas and Borgie Hermida, Jake Pascual, Eric Gamalinda and JR Tecson in the fold.

Rookie center 6-7 Sudan Daniels will try to fill the void left by Ekwe, who helped steer San Beda to their title romps.

“He (Daniels) will have big shoes to fill, so JR (Taganas), Jake (Pascual) and the rest of the guys should step up,” said ex-pro Mike Advani, Frankie Lim’s assistant coach.

With one less big problem at the paint, the Knights might find it easy to attack the basket with its running game, but coach Louie Alas is not taking any chances.

“Our stint here is really a big help to our NCAA buildup because we will learn a lot of lesson from here. But La Salle, Ateneo and San Beda remain the teams to beat,” said Alas.

Like the Red Lions, the Knights lost key men to graduation, including Dino Daa, Rey Dangkal, Kojack Melegrito, Regin Ranises and Alvyn Cabonce.

But RJ Razul and Rey Guevarra are expected to take over for the team.

The match between San Beda and Letran will be aired on Sunday, April 20, over at IBC 13, from 12 noon to 2 p.m. Coverage of June 5, June 12 and 14 games will be shown over IBC-13.

All other game dates will be shown 1 day after on Makisig from 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Makisig Channel is the official coveror of the Filoil Flying V Pre-Season MVP Cup.