Stags beat Generals to join Red Lions on top of NCAA standings

San Sebastian College saw its 21-point lead vanish but managed to survive Emilo Aguinaldo College's gallant stand in hacking out a 77-70 decision on Wednesday in the 87th NCAA men's basketball tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Stags led by 21 points twice in the first half, the last time on a Ronald Pascual one-handed jam with 85 seconds left in the second period. Holding a 19-point bubble with two minutes left in the third quarter, San Sebastian coach Topex Robinson decided to rest Pascual, Calvin Abueva and Ian Sangalang to preserve his starters in the final period. Only playmaker Jovit Dela Cruz was the only starter left inside the playing court when Robinson sent in his second stringers. With San Sebastian's big guns sitting on the bench, EAC capitalized on the situation and used a 9-2 closing run to cut the deficit to a manageable 12 points, 56-48. The trio of Filipino-American Joshua Torralba, Jan Jamon and Emilian Vargas teamed up in another 16-7 run to threaten for the last time at 70-68 with 1:25 left in the game. The Stags, however, answered with their own 7-2 spurt to secure their sixth straight win and join defending champion San Beda on top of the standings. EAC suffered its third straight loss for a 2-4 slate. An Anthony Del Rio steal led to a Pascual two-handed jam with 30.7 seconds left. Pascual added two free throws after EAC's Torralba was called for an unsportsmanlike foul for a 74-68 count. Abueva shot 3-of-4 from the foul line in the final 27.7 seconds to give San Sebastian enough breathing room. Jamon's basket at the other end sealed the final tally. "I expected the team to be sluggish because what we did mostly the past two days was viewing the tapes," said Robinson. "The last time we played real basketball was last Monday. We cannot use our gym for practice because of the moist caused by the heavy rains. But I told the boys that's not an excuse for us to lose." Pascual scattered 19 markers to lead the Stags while Abueva was a rebound short of claiming his sixth straight double-double with a 17-point and nine-rebound tally. Sangalang finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds while del Rio became the fourth Stag to score in double figures with 10 markers. Torralba, Jamon and Claude Cubo tallied 16 each for the Gerry Esplana-coached Generals. — JVP, GMA News