NCAA leaders take on lesser lights

MANILA, Philippines - San Beda and San Sebastian try to stay in the lead as they take on a pair of struggling rivals at the start of the second round elims of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City today.

The Lions and the Stags share the lead with the Jose Rizal U Bombers at 7-2 at the end of the first round with last year’s title protagonists tipped to get past the Lyceum Pirates and Emilio Aguinaldo College, respectively, and remain at helm.

SSC tries to score a repeat over EAC at 4 p.m. while San Beda hopes to make it two-in-row against Lyceum.

The Lions are coming off a 65-43 thrashing of the Letran Knights last Thursday while the Stags beat the defending champions, 80-71, last Monday.

Still, Lyceum and EAC will try to pull off a pair of reversals as they try to improve on their woeful 2-7 cards.

“I’ve always said that we can’t underestimate any team in the NCAA this season, anything can happen when you’re on a floor so we really can’t be sure,” said SBC coach Ronnie Magsanoc, whose wards beat the Pirates, 82-67, in their first meeting last July 2.

Despite their edge in manpower, Robinson remains wary of the Generals.

“People were saying that we are the heavy favorites against EAC and look what happened, we almost lost to them before ending up the game winning by just a point,” said Robinson, referring to his charges’ 94-93 escape first round win over the Generals last July 30. 

“So it goes to show that anyone can beat anyone in this league. We just can’t afford to be overconfident against anyone,” he added.

Calvin Abueva and Ronald Pascual are again expected to lead SSC’s charge with the former expected to showcase his form and impress the PBA teams for tomorrow’s annual rookie draft.

Abueva, tipped to end up as Alaska Milk’s No. 2 overall pick, came an assist shy of posting his third triple-double effort of the season, dishing out 21 points, 21 rebounds and nine assists while Pascual, who opted to withdraw from the draft at the last minute, fired seven triples and wound up with 28 points against San Beda.