LETRAN squares off with San Sebastian College in the Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletic Association seniors basketball tournament with the Knights hoping to control the Golden Stags by their horns—matching their game style with style, skills with skill and experience with skill.
“San Sebastian is a veteran team,” said Knights’ Coach Boni Tan after their tune-up game with Ateneo’s Team B recently at the Moro Sports Complex. “They adjust very quickly in games. For us to compete with ‘Baste,’ we have to be ready with what they throw at us.”
For the Stags, their offense depends heavily on Most Valuable Player contenders Allyn Bulanadi and RK Ilagan.
Bulanadi had a stellar elimination-game performance against Univeristy of Perpetual Help System Dalta where he recorded a career-high of 44 points to cement fourth spot in the Final Four.
But Ilagan did not leave the task solely on Bulanadi’s shoulders. He stepped up with his consistent three-point shooting and pinpoint passing.
If the Knights could contain the Stags’ one-two punch, they would easily dictate the tempo of the game.
“Bulanadi is a main threat, plus his partner Ilagan,” Tan said. “They should be stopped. They are Bastes’ heart and soul.”
Letran (12-6) and San Sebastian (11-7) face each other at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the Astrodome in Pasay City in the first phase of the step-ladder semifinals that resulted from San Beda University’s 18-0 sweep of the eliminations.
The winner will then face No. 2 seed Lyceum of the Philippines University (13-5) also at 4 p.m. in the same venue on Friday for the last championship berth.
Tan said it would be further uphill for his team in the playoffs with San Beda and Lyceum waiting with their foreign reinforcements ready to wreck havoc on the semifinals field.
“But we’ll take it one game at a time,” he said.