BY CHRISTINE MONCADA

MAPUA struck San Beda with another lightning 53-51 yesterday to arrange a winner-take-all match for a finals seat in the 84th NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the Astrodome.

Jose Rizal University avoided San Beda’s pitfall, fashioning a come-from-behind 63-61 victory over Letran to move closer to copping its first title in 36 years.

"It has been an uphill climb for us, it’s a good thing we got good breaks," said JRU coach Ariel Vanguardia.

Staring at a 58-61 deficit, with 2:22 left, Jose Rizal uncorked a short but telling 5-0 closing run to advance to the best-of-three championship round.

A basket by John Wilson cut Letran’s lead to 60-61 but it was veteran slotman James Sena’s lay-up in the final 31.2 seconds that allowed the Bombers to wrest the lead 62-61.

Marc Cagoco sealed the final count with a charity off his own steal from RJ Jazul in the ensuing play.

The Knights had 16.8 ticks left to make a basket and force overtime or a reversal but Jazul, who got hold of the ball after a near turnover by Kojack Melegrito, was distracted anew by Wilson’s defense.

The game, however, was placed under protest as the Knights claimed Wilson should have been called for a foul.

Sena had a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds to compliment his three assists, two steals and a block while Cagoco and Wilson chipped in 11 and 10 points. Jazul and Dino Daa scored 17 and 16 markers for Letran.

The Mapua Cardinals neutralized the Red Lions’ twice-to-beat advantage by employing the same style of play–a dead-tempo game–that enabled the former to fashion a similar 53-48 upset win the second time they met.

The knockout match is set at 4 p.m. on Monday.

"I told the boys before the game that if we can execute our gameplan well, we will win. It was good also that (Ian) Mazo and (Jonathan) Banal scored better even in the three-point mark," said Mapua coach Leo Isaac.

It was a big win that almost did not materialize after San Beda battled back from a 13-point deficit early in the fourth quarter.

But his boys held their poise and Isaac is now sure the burden is on the Lions.

"Right now, I think the pressure is on San Beda and hopefully we are in a situation that they are not familiar with," Isaac, a member of the 1981 champion team of Mapua, added.

Veteran Fil-Canadian guard Kelvin de la Pena paced Mapua with 17 points, two rebounds, four rebounds and two steals and Mazo added 17 points while Banal had 10 markers.

The Cardinals led by as many as 27-13 midway into the second quarter but the Lions cut it down to 34-36 after a short stab by Jay-R Taganas with 4:08 in the third.

Mapua got its bearings back and pushed the lead back to double digits 51-38 with a triple from Banal at 7:54 of the payoff round.

San Beda showed its resiliency by trimming the deficit down to 51-53, on Ogie Menor’s charity with 12.5 seconds left.

The Lions botched their chance for a reversal when Pong Escobal, who was specifically told to take the ball hard to the basket, misfired a three-pointer in the waning seconds.