The Lyceum of the Philippines Pirates defeated the San Sebastian Stags 82-69 in their Philippine Collegiate Champions League Final Four matchup Monday afternoon, February 12, at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
In a battle of National Collegiate Athletic Association heavyweights, LPU went on a huge run on the third quarter and outscored SSC-R 26-17 in order to help establish a double digit deficit for the rest of the way. The Pirates would use that advantage to keep the Stags in check and the game was pretty much never in doubt since then.
Jaycee Marcelino led the LPU attack with 24 points with an outstanding 64% shooting clip from the field while grabbing 10 rebounds. Four other Pirates scored 10 or more points.
The Stags’ usual gunners, Allyn Bulanadi and Michael Calisaan, failed to find their groove and combined for a subpar 14 points, making only five shots in 23 attempts.
With the victory, Lyceum will head to the National Championship Game scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 15 at 5:30PM, also at the Filoil Flying V Centre. They will face the winner of the San Beda-Ateneo matchup in the other Final Four bracket.
BOX SCORE: (FIBA LiveStats)
Lyceum of the Philippines (89): JC Marcelino 24, Nzeusseu 13, Ayaay 12, Perez 11, Ibanez 10, Tansingco 7, Caduyac 2, JV Marcelino 2, Liwag 1, Cinco 0, Pretta 0, Santos 0, Serrano 0.
San Sebastian College – Recoletos (69): Costelo 15, Capobres 12, Bulanadi 9, David 8, Navarro 6, Calisaan 5, Ilagan 5, Cosari 4, Baytan 3, Baetiong 2, Calma 0, Dela Cruz 0, Valdez 0, Mercado 0.
QUARTERSCORES: 19-20, 35-30, 61-47, 82-69