San Beda bags 2006 NCAA basketball crown, 68-67

San Beda finally buried the ghost of the past as the Red Lions defeated the Philippine Christian University Dolphins, 68-67, to bag the 2006 NCAA Men’s basketball championship at the Araneta Coliseum on Friday. The Red Lions ended a 28-year-old title drought that dates back to 1978 when a team bannered by former pro-players Chito Loyzaga and Frankie Lim led their team into the championship. This will be San Beda’s 12th basketball championship, putting them third among NCAA teams with the most number of basketball titles. The Dolphins, who won game two with a big lead, was trailing San Beda by 20 points during the start of the fourth quarter, but kept their composure as they brought down the deficit to one point during the game’s last minutes. Pro-bound Jason Castro was a man-possessed after he scored 14 out of 25 points in the final canto sparking the wild run. The Red Lions maintained the one-point lead as the Dolphins committed numerous errors in the remaining 17.1 seconds, sealing the victory to the delight of their supporters. The Red Lions managed to gain victory despite scoring only five points in the final quarter. "This victory is for the whole San Beda community. Without their support, I don’t think we can make it this far," said a visibly tired and emotional San Beda coach Koy Banal. Banal, who played for the Red Cubs during his high school days in the late 70s, also made history for himself as the first coach to steer an NCAA team and a UAAP team to a championship. Banal was the coach of the Far Eastern University Tamaraws when they won the championship in 2003 against the De La Salle University team. Yousif Aljamal paced the Red Lions with 15 markers followed by John Escobal who had seven points for the ball game. Castro had a total of 25 points for his last game as a Dolphin while Robby David contributed eights points for PCU. Pro-bound Gabby Espinas, who was the number four pick of the San Miguel Beermen in the recent PBA rookie-draft, was held down to only eight points after scoring 22 points, nine rebounds and two assists in game two of the NCAA Finals on Wednesday. - GMANews.TV