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| Ivan Saldajeno |
By Ivan Saldajeno
PASAY—San Beda-Taytay roared back from a late deficit to steal Game 2 of the NCAA juniors basketball finals from Malayan via an 81-78 win at the Mall of Asia Arena on Tuesday.
The Red Cubs completed a rally from seven points down in the last five minutes to equalize their best-of-three affair with the Red Robins.
Malayan came close to winning its first NCAA title since 2000 after surging to a 75-68 lead with 5:08 left in the game.
But San Beda-Taytay went on a 7-0 run to tie the game, 75-all, with 2:25 left.
Rom Junsay scored to give the Red Robins the lead anew, 77-75, with 1:55 to go, but Germy Mahinay answered to tie the game anew in the next play.
Brian Lacap gave the Robins the lead one more time with a split from the line, but Carlo Obenza scored on a fastbreak layup to put the Red Cubs ahead, 79-78, with 34 seconds left.
Junsay failed to put Malayan up as his muffed a layup with 13.6 seconds to go.
However, Malayan appeared to have given a lease of life as Josh Tagala only made a split from the charity stripe with 8.3 seconds to go only that Peter Alfaro grabbed the offensive rebound.
Alfaro also only went 1-of-2 from the line, but with them without a timeout left, the Robins were forced to a desperation three at the final buzzer that they missed.
Obenza finished with 19 points, two rebounds, and two assists, while Robi Nayve added 14 points, one rebound, and three assists for San Beda-Taytay.
Junsay led Malayan with 23 points, four rebounds, and three assists.
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