Colegio de San Juan de Letrán secured a spot in the 95th NCAA men’s basketball finals after their 92-88 win last week over Lyceum of the Philippines University at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.
Fran Yu finished with 20 points for Letrán; while Larry Muyang chipped in 19 points and nine rebounds, Edson Batiller added 13 points, and Jerrick Balanza contributed 11.
Trailing by a single point midway in the fourth period, Letrán leaned on Yu, Balanza, and Muyang as they led a 15-2 scoring run to establish an 84-72 lead.
Lyceum, however, did not give up easily and fought back to trim the deficit to 90-87 with 24 seconds left before Muyang and Batiller came up with crucial points to seal the win.
“I’ll give this one to my veterans,” said Letrán head coach Bonnie Tan.
Letrán next faces defending champions San Beda University in a best-of-three championship series starting tomorrow.
“I want to give San Beda something na ‘di siguro nabigay the past few years. (I want to give San Beda something they have not received over the past few years,” Tan added. “Siyempre, we’re looking forward sa next level na laro (Of course, we are looking forward to the next level of play).”/ASC, WDJ