St. Benilde moves on, nails Final Four berth

MANILA, Philippines — For the first time in two decades, St. Benilde made it to the NCAA Final Four where it will have a shot at another feat – a second championship since its breakthrough crown in 2000.

Drawing a masterpiece from Will Gozum, the Blazers turned back the stubborn San Sebastian Stags, 83-78, yesterday to secure a place in the next round of NCAA Season 98 at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.

Gozum pounded his way to 25 points and 10 rebounds while topping it with six assists and two steals to help carry CSB to its 11th victory in 15 outings and reclaim its place at No. 2 behind leader Letran (12-3).

More importantly, CSB has moved on from the tumultuous game against Jose Rizal University last week.

“It’s great. We are happy it’s one of our small goals. Hopefully we can go past the Final Four and really make a run for the championship,” said CSB coach Charles Tiu. “Hopefully we mature and continue to grow as a team.”

The win handed idle San Beda (10-5) the last Final Four seat on a silver platter while eliminating SSC, which fell to 6-9.

It didn’t help that SSC mentor Egay Macaraya was tossed out for two straight technical fouls after he entered the court late in the second quarter.

Macaraya was calmly asking officials to review a regular foul called on CSB’s Carlo Lim on SSC’s Alex Desoyo that the veteran coach thought should have been a flagrant foul since the latter’s head was hit in that play.

But it escalated into a shouting match with the refs, leading to his ejection.

In the other game, Arellano U trounced University of Perpetual Help, 86-81, in a non-bearing game to improve to 7-9. The Altas dropped to 7-10.

After a long discussion, game officials eventually granted the review and subsequently upgraded the foul to a flagrant while Macaraya’s two technical fouls stayed and he was tossed out.

Macaraya’s ejection proved decisive as the Stags completely struggled without their bench tactician and just couldn’t turn things around in their favor.