San Beda aims to steal No. 2 Group A spot in Filoil cagefest

MANILA, Philippines – In the only significant movement in the final day of elimination round play of the Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup on Friday, San Beda University can steal the second seed of Group A from La Salle.

The 6-2 Red Lions crushed Mapua, 95-60, on Tuesday to hike their total to 6-2. A win against the 0-8 Emilio Aguinaldo College in the 1:45 p.m. game will tie them with idle La Salle at 7-2.The Green Archersabsorbed their second loss of the tourney against archrival Ateneo, 81-75, also during the Independence Day games.

A San Beda win will drop La Salle to No. 3.

In other matches at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan, teams will hope to improve their place in the final team standings, or in the case of the College of St. Benilde and Adamson University, finish strong before the quarterfinals. 

The Blazers battle the San Sebastian Golden Stags at 3:30 p.m. The Blazers are the surprise team of the tournament with a 6-1 record to top Group B. They will take on the 4-3 Stags, who even if they upset CSB will have no chance of catching up to 5-3 Letran as they lost to the Knights in the elimination round. The win-over-the-other rule is the tiebreaker in these instances.

For the 5-2 Adamson Falcons, they will have their hands full against a resurgent Lyceum of the Philippines University team that fielded a near complete squad in their 89-68 massacre of Far Eastern University last June 10 to go to 3-4. The Pirates could activate African center Harry Nzeusseu for this match. Nzeusseu and most of their regular rotation have skipped the tourney to rest after a grueling D-League campaign that saw them bag the Aspirants’ Cup crown.

The talented Falcons have been boosted by key acquisitions in Jerome Lastimosa, CJ Catapusan, Egie Boy Mojica, Jed Colonia and Vince Magbuhos to replace Nicko Paranada, Kurt Lojera and Tyrus Hill, who have all left for various reasons.

Adamson and Lyceum close out the elimination round games at 5:15 p.m.

A pair of teams hoping to finish strong are the Arellano University Chiefs and the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers, who have both been eliminated from quarterfinals qualification. The two teams clash at 12 p.m.

The quarterfinals take place on Thursday, June 28, with the semifinals slated for June 29 and the finals on June 30.

Tickets to the tournament can be purchased at the gate of the venue.