Borgie Hermida of San Beda College (right) drives against Raymond Maconocindo of San Sebastian in their NCAA basketball tournament duel last Monday at The Arena. The Red Lions won, 71-67. (Photo by BOB DUNGO JR.)

Defending champion San Beda College hopes to dish out the same tenacity and energy this Wednesday when it collides with San Sebastian College for the No. 1 spot in the Final Four of the 85th NCAA basketball tournament.

The Red Lions forced a knock out match for the No. 1 slot after scoring 71-67 come-from-behind win over the Stags last Monday which San Beda coach Frankie Lim attributed to their “Big D”.

“We made a good defensive job last time out,” Lim said. “Defense will be given emphasis again.”

“Big game for us,” said Lim, hoping to steer his wards to their fourth straight title. “Our goal now is to finish No. 1.”

San Beda and San Sebastian ended the elims with similar 16-2 slates, and no matter what happens in today's match, both teams will be armed with twice-to-beat advantage heading into the Final Four that starts Friday.

Wednesday’s winner will face No. 4 Letran in the semis while the loser battles the No. 3 Jose Rizal University.

The Lions and the Stags need only to win once to arrange a best-of-three finals starting on Oct. 23 at the Araneta Coliseum.

Clashing at 2 p.m. are the junior squads of San Beda and Letran, which will dispute the No. 1 seeding in the semis after finishing the elims on similar 17-1 slates.

Perpetual Help and Jose Rizal, both tied at 13-5 after the elims, clash in the other junior game at 11 a.m. to dispute the last Final 4 berth.

Though momentum is on their side, Lim doesn’t want to fall into a false sense of security.

“We will still see the games on video and figure out what we still lack and need to adjust,” said Lim, whose squad has been showing tenacious defense in its past three games, limiting its opponents to under 70 points.

Before reducing the erstwhile unbeaten Stags to their lowest output of the season last Monday, the Lions also choked Letran, 76-64, and St. Benilde, 66-54.

Lim is expected to rely anew on his prized rookie Sudan Daniel, who tallied 19 points and 13 rebounds, a big improvement from his three-point production during his stint against the Knights last week.

Providing Daniel back up support will be Garvo Lanete and Adler Del Rosario and the duo of Bam Gamalinda and Borgie Hermida, who joined hands for the Lions’ final four points in the previous win.

The sweet-shooting Jimbo Aquino, meanwhile, must step up big time to give the Stags a chance of getting back at the Lions.