College of Saint Benilde-La Salle Greenhills lived to fight another day, dragging defending champion San Beda University to a do-or-die semifinal clash in the NCAA Season 98 juniors basketball tournament after a 92-79 victory in Game 1 of their Final Four series on Monday.
LSGH and San Beda will tussle for the last finals ticket on Thursday for the rights to face Colegio de San Juan de Letran in the championship round.
Tied at 48-all at the half, the Greenies started turning things around in the third with Seven Gagate dominating for 15 of his points in that quarter alone. His frontcourt partner Luis Pablo completed a three-point play opportunity to give LSGH its biggest lead of 21, 72-51.
But the Red Cubs were able to head to the fourth staring at just a 16-point deficit with Chris Hubilla igniting to slowly bring San Beda back in the game, 74-58.
The Greenies, though, never looked back since then despite losing Pablo due to five fouls. The towering big man scored six points in the fourth quarter before fouling out with 4:03 left in the game.
Gagate finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds while Pablo added 23 and 11. The two also notched two blocks apiece.
Hubilla led San Beda with game-highs of 34 points and 15 rebounds but that was not enough in this game.
The scores:
Benilde-La Salle Green Hills 92 - Gagate 24, Pablo 23, Alian 14, Gomez 11, Ison 8, Rivero 5, Mesias 4, Zaragoza 2, R. Romero 1, S. Romero 0, Villaver 0, Natividad 0, Muyuela 0, Zamora 0.
San Beda 79 - Hubilla 34, Lopez 26, Ludovice 8, Lecciones 5, Wagan 3, Dungo 3, Mundas 0, Lorenzo 0, Reyes 0, Ronquillo 0, Lacsamana 0, Manarang 0, Sahali 0, Sollano 0.
Quarters: 22-16, 48-48, 74-58, 92-79.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
