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| Paeng Are fired 23 points as San Sebastian bounced back against Letran. NCAA |
SAN JUAN, MM--San Sebastian College ran a demoralized, undermanned Letran out of the building with a crushing 94-75 rout on Wednesday that kept it in the NCAA Season 99 Final Four race at the Filoil EcoOil Arena.
Rafael Are and Rommel Calahat presided over the carnage by unleashing 23 and 21 points, respectively, as the Stags claimed their fifth win in 14 games with a glimmer of hope that they can still make the playoff phase.
“Siyempre one game at a time, kung may chance pa kami, we’ll do our best in each and every game and to learn from it, yun lang naman goal namin,” said SSC-R coach John Kallos.
Are, a future team captain in waiting as he has two more playing years left in him, for his part, said they just executed their game plan to just run and gun a depleted Letran team that missed skipper Kurt Reyson for the second straight game and just most recently, guard Nicko Fajardo, who got injured early in this game.
“Yun ang game plan namin, sumunod lang ako sa system ni coach,” said Are, who hit nine of the 13 he fired shots including three booming treys while chipping in six assists, four rebounds, and a steal to an impressive stat line.
For Calahat, he is trying to make his final season memorable and hopes to turn heads from PBA teams after he was left undrafted in this year’s rookie draft.
“Mindset ko lang to focus every game and sabi nga ni coach, guide ko lang teammates ko,” said Calahat, who also done it all after ending up with three boards and the same number of dimes and swipes plus a block.
SSC-R also avenged its 86-71 defeat to Letran, which happened to be the lone win by the fallen three-peat champion so far this season in 14 outings.
And now the Stags are bracing for another tough game on Sunday versus the red-hot College of St. Benilde Blazers that serves as practically a do-or-die game for the former.
“Siyempre malaki factor yung game nayan, morale booster if we can get that too. We will make sure lalaban kami in the end kahit sino kalaban namin,” said Kallos.
The scores:
SSC-R 94-Are 23, Calahat 21, Desoyo 13, Re. Gabat 13, Felebrico 10, Escobido 7, Una 6, Sumoda 1, Shanoda 0, Chuidian 0, Velasco 0, Singson 0
Letran 75-Garupil 16, Monje 13, Go 13, Cuajao 8, Javillonar 8, Ariar 6, Bautista 4, Fajardo 3, Bojorcelo 2, Batallier 2, Nunag 0, Jumao-as 0, Brilliantes 0, Santos 0
Quarterscores: 25-22; 51-38; 70-50; 94-75
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