San Sebastian–Letran Rivalry

This rivalry is between Recto's San Sebastian and Muralla's Letran. The rivalry is played at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines).

The Knights became the first 4th seed to upset the 1st seed in the Final Four when they defeated the Stags twice during the 1999 NCAA Final Four. That feat would soon be duplicated the following year when the 4th seed Stags upended top seed JRC Heavy Bombers in the 2000 NCAA Final Four. The Knights went on to win the 1999 NCAA championship.

Head-to-head record by sport

Seniors' Division

General Championship

Letran leads the General Championship race with 9–4.NCAA Philippines – Championships

*Letran (9) – 1979–80, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2009–10
*San Sebastian (4) – 1984–85, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1994–95

Juniors' Division

General Championship

Letran leads the general championship race with 7–6.
*Letran (7) – 1983, 1986, 1987, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
*San Sebastian (6) – 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Basketball Statistics

Men's basketball results

After both Ateneo and La Salle left, San Sebastian (frequently shortened to "Baste") strengthened their basketball program. The recruitment of Paul Alvarez by San Sebastian and Samboy Lim by Letran provided several close games in the 1980s which led to the birth of the rivalry.

In the 1980s, Letranites were notorious for yelling profanities at the San Sebastian players, and on one occasion, led to a rumble at Vito Cruz Avenue when at the last second, a power interruption occurred, causing confusion on what team won the championship. The rumbles between the two schools have become more frequent which solidified the intense rivalry between the two schools. Paul Alvarez would later play for the Pennsylvania Valley Dawgs of the United States Basketball League.

The final four was instituted in 1997; prior to that the first and second round winners, plus the team with the best overall standing if it did not win either round, participated in the championship round to determine the champion.

The rivalry continued in the turn of the millennium when the Stags met the Knights in the finals twice. This led to several memorable games in which the Knights won the 1998 edition with a barrage of three-pointers and free way ows by Letran's Nicholas Pacheco with a few seconds remaining to win their 13th championship. The Knights also became the first 4th seed to upset the 1st seed in the Final Four when they defeated the Stags twice during the 1999 NCAA Final Four. That feat would soon be duplicated the following year when the 4th seed Stags upended top seed JRC Heavy Bombers in the 2000 NCAA Final Four. The Knights went on to win the 1999 NCAA championship. In the 2003 NCAA Finals, the Stags (defending champs) made a rally in the 4th quarter in the 3rd game of their series and kept Letran scoreless for almost 6 minutes that led them to take the lead but Boyet Bautista started the comeback by tying the game at 48-all and then his teammates Jonathan Piñera and Aaron Aban finished the game to win their 15th championship at the expense of the Stags. In 2004, they renewed their rivalry in the second round of eliminations wherein Letran denied Baste's Final 4 hopes and eventually broke their streak of Final Four appearances (since the inception of the final four format in 1998 San Sebastian is always in the Final Four) making it their worst performance in 6 years.

In 2009, Letran ended San Sebastian's 15 winning streak as they gave out the Stags' first loss of the season, and the Knights prevented the Golden Stags from sweeping the 18 game elimination round to qualify outright in the Finals

In 2010, Letran gave San Sebastian a scare as the Stags escaped the Knights with a one-point lead.and The Stags put the Knights in the brink of elimination

In 2011, Letran once again ended the Stags' 15-game winning streak and gave its first loss of the season via overtime.

In 2012, Letran swept the series against San Sebastian at the elimination round. With the Stags had a twice-to-beat advantage over the Knights, Letran once again beat San Sebastian to force another game as Kevin Alas scored 43 points, in the do-or-die game, Letran came back in the fourth quarter to beat the Stags, 73–70, eliminating the Stags from the Finals contention versus San Beda.

In 2017, Both schools met in the playoffs for the first time since 2013 but this time in a hard way with Lyceum sweeping the regular season 18–0 and automatically advances to the finals. 3 teams tied for the number 4 seed in the stepladder semifinals with San Sebastian had the highest quotient among the 3 against Letran and Arellano with the latter 2 needed to figure it out in a knock out match (in which Letran won) in the right to face against San Sebastian. In the proper 4th-seed playoff game, San Sebastian's Michael Calisaan scored a season-high and a career-high double double performance of 36 points and 10 rebounds to eliminate Letran anew with a score of 74–69(with the Golden Stags scoring the last 5 points including a 3-point shot going into regulation that put away the game from the Knights) to advanced to the 1st round of the stepladder semifinals facing off against the JRU Heavy Bombers.

In 2019, With San Beda sweeping the regular season 18–0, gaining an outright finals berth and forcing the post season into a stepladder format. Both teams faced off in the 1st round of the stepladder semifinals with Letran winning the game 85–80(as the Knights survived a late 4th quarter scare from San Sebastian after the Stags cut the deficit into a 1-point game heading into regulation) to advanced to the 2nd round against the Lyceum Pirates (in which Letran also won 92–88) enrouting to their Cinderella run against the San Beda Red Lions, and winning the championship.

Pre-Final Four era

Final Four era

Both teams are expected to meet at least 2 times per year.

; Notes

Juniors' Basketball Results

Pre-Final Four era

Final Four era

Both teams are expected to meet at least 2 times per year.

; Notes

Final Four Rankings

For comparison, these are the rankings of these two teams since the Final Four format was introduced.

Seniors' division

Juniors' division

Legend

; Notes

See also

*San Sebastian Stags
*National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines)
*San Beda–Letran rivalry
*San Beda–San Sebastian rivalry
*Battle of Intramuros
* JRU–San Sebastian rivalry

References

External links

NCAA historical resultsNCAA Season 85 Schedules and ResultsNCAA Season 86 Schedules and ResultsGoogle News ArchiveManila Bulletin Online Newspaper Archive
*The LANCE – Letran College

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebastian-Letran rivalry
National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines) rivalries
Colegio de San Juan de Letran
San Sebastian College – Recoletos