University of Perpetual Help System Dalta and La Salle Green Hills (LSGH) will finally settle their score as they clash in Game 3 of Season 100 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) juniors basketball best-of-three finals series today at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
Tip-off starts at 2:30 p.m. with the winner formally ending their long title drought in the country’s oldest collegiate basketball league.
The Junior Altas want not just to erase the sting of their last year’s heartbreak against Letran College but also to give the school its first basketball crown of any kind since joining the league in 1984.
Meanwhile, the Greenies have yet to taste the sweetness of an NCAA title since up-and-coming guard JD Cagulangan led the squad to victory in 2017.
Perpetual drew the first blood after a heart-stopping 100-96 Game 1 victory last Friday, thanks to Season 100 Most Valuable Player Lebron Jhames Daep, who dropped a near double-double game of 21 points and nine rebounds.
In Game 2, it was graduating guard Guillian Quines who put on a show as he dropped a double-double game of 35 points, 11 rebounds, five steals and four assists as LSGH posted a 95-91 victory and forced an all-important Game 3.
Aside from Quines, the Greenies will also lean on Migs Osis, who scored four of his 16 points in the dying seconds of Game 2.
Perpetual coach Joph Cleofas knows that the battle will be an all-out war with the team that wants it more emerging victorious.
“We will give all our best on Game 3,” Cleofas said.
“We will be ready because we’re sure that La Salle will also give its best. All I can say is that we win it. If not, it’s still glory to God.”
The Junior Altas hope to see the 6-foot-7 Daep bounce back from a shooting slump after being held to just eight points in Game 2.