SAN Beda College overpowered Lyceum, 89-73, and Arellano University turned back defending champion Letran, 83-74, to barge into the Final Four of the 92nd NCAA basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.
Arnaud Noah dished out his best performance in the NCAA by uncorking 22 points, while Davon Potts, Amiel Soberano and Jayvee Mocon chipped in 19, 17 and 12, respectively, as the Lions nailed their 11th straight Final Four appearance with a 12-4 (win-loss) record.
The Chiefs, for their part, drew a 22-point effort by Jio Jalalon in securing a slot in the Final Four while keeping the solo lead with a 12-3 mark.
San Beda soothed its painful 88-97 defeat to Jose Rizal Tuesday, with Noah, the smaller but quicker back up of the injured Donald Tankoua, who was ruled for the rest of the season due to a torn ACL, taking charge.
The Pirates fell to 5-11.
The Knights absorbed their eighth defeat against the same number of wins.
Meanwhile, Perpetual Help went to Bright Akhuetie in second overtime as it downed Jose Rizal, 89-80, Friday to ensure itself of at least a playoff for a Final Four berth.
Akhuetie banged his way to seven of his game-high 28 in the second extra time while pulling down another game-best 18 rebounds to power the Altas to their 11th win against four losses and a win away from making it back to the Final Four after missing the cut a season back.
The Las Pinas-based school also needed to overcome a seven-point deficit with over a minute to go in regulation to complete the escape act.
“We rode on Bright (Akhuetie) in the second overtime, but I think the key was the team’s perseverance in the fourth quarter, the players refused to give up,” said Perpetual Help coach Jimwell Gican.
Gab Dagangon, Daryl Sinontiko and Genmar Ilagan chipped in 15, 13 and 10 points, respectively, to help the cause.
Jose Rizal had all the chance to snatch the win after Teytey Teodoro drained a triple to give it a 64-57 lead with 1.26 minutes to go in regulation.
The Bombers, however, couldn’t score from there as the Altas closed the regulation with a 7-0 blast that was capped by a game-tying three-pointer by Ilagan with 23.5 seconds that ended up forcing OT.
Jose Rizal also led by two twice in OT, the last at 74-72 on a Teodoro floater with 20.7 seconds remaining.
But Akhuetie scored on a putback off his own miss with eight ticks left and then watched Teodoro miss an off-balanced three-point attempt and Abdul Razak Abdul Wahab bricked a follow up that forged a second OT.
And then, Akhuetie just took over.
Teodoro wound up leading his team with 23 points, but he was held to just two points in second OT that spelled Jose Rizal’s doom.
The Bombers fell to 9-7 (win-loss).
The scores:
First Game (srs)
UPHSD (89) – Akhuetie 28, Dagangon 15, Singontiko 13, Ilagan 10, Coronel 9, Pido 6,Sadiwa 4, Eze 4, Gallardo 0, Dizon 0.
JRU (80) – Teodoro 23, Grospe 15, Dela Virgen 13, Dela Paz 11, Abdulrazak 6, Pontejos 5, Cruz 4, Mendoza 3, Poutouochi 2, Lasquety 0, Astilla 0.
Quarterscores: 14-11, 27-28, 43-43, 64-64, 74-74, 89-80.
Games Monday
(The Arena, San Juan)
9 a.m.- Mapua vs Letran (jrs)
10:45 a.m.- St. Benilde vs Arellano (jrs)
12:30 p.m.- San Beda vs EAC (jrs)
2:15 p.m.- San Sebastian vs LPU (jrs)
4 p.m.- Jose Rizal vs Perpetual (jrs)
Games Tuesday
(The Arena, San Juan)
12 nn.- LPU vs Perpetual Help (srs)
2 p.m.- Arellano vs Jose Rizal (srs)
4 p.m.- Letran vs Mapua (srs)