The last time San Beda and Letran collided on the NCAA finals stage in 2019, Yuki Andrada was still starring for the Red Cubs, watching from afar as his kuyas battled it out in the storied rivalry at the seniors level.
Today, he finds himself at the heart of that same rivalry, now as a full-fledged Red Lion, finally part of the showdown he once only looked up to.
And he knows it will be nothing short of a war when the Red Lions and the Knights clash in a dream finals matchup in Season 101.
"I’m really excited, especially [because] we lost to Letran in the last elimination game. But then, a rivalry this big, I think it’s gonna be a dogfight for sure," Andrada told GMA News Online on Sunday.
"And I’m just really excited since it’s a Beda-Letran and sa finals pa."
Andrada is right when he said it's going to be a dogfight, especially with both teams deadlocked in their head-to-head matchups this season.
In their first meeting on October 5, star rookie Janti Miller took over down the stretch, guiding the Red Lions to a 68-58 victory and handing Letran its second loss in an 0-3 start.
But the Knights returned the favor when they met the Red Lions anew on November 23.
In that rivalry game, both Letran's Titing Manalili and Miller exploded for career-high scoring games with the Letran rookie dropping 26 markers while the Filipino-American recruit erupted for 34.
But Manalili and the Knights got the last laugh, pulling off an 87-83 win to end the group stage with a morale-boosting victory.
Letran and San Beda then took different paths in the playoffs with the Knights sweeping both Arellano University and University of Perpetual Help System DALTA in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, to reach the grand stage.
San Beda, meanwhile, cruised past Lyceum of the Philippines University in the quarterfinals but was pushed to the brink in the semifinals by De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde.
At one point in the do-or-die Game 3, the Red Lions faced the threat of elimination as they trailed the Blazers by a sizable margin early in the third. But they just refused to quit with Andrada taking matters into his own hands.
The graduating forward poured in 20 of his 27 points in the second half, including three clutch three-pointers in the fourth quarter that kept the Red Lions’ season alive in an 84-81 win.
It’s that same fighting spirit that Andrada and the rest of the Red Lions hope to channel when they face the Knights starting this Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
"After first half pa lang, sa dugout namin, I was really trying to get something out of my teammates, especially defensively because we were getting killed, we were down by 11. And I want them to react to that.” Andarada added.
"That’s why I took initiative in the fourth quarter, taking those shots, and being there defensively and I think that spread out to my teammates. That’s what helped us in this game."
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—JMB, GMA Integrated News
