“Never underestimate the heart of a champion.”

This will be the San Beda Red Lions’ battlecry as they expect to thread through the proverbial eye of the needle in the semifinals of the NCAA Season 100 men’s basketball tournament on Saturday, Nov. 23.

On paper, the defending champions are entering the Final Four as underdogs with their No. 3 seeding, where they need to beat second seed College of St. Benilde Blazers twice in order to book a championship berth.

The Mendiola-based squad has also not won against St. Benilde in their two elimination meetings -- a 70-65 loss in the first round and a 72-60 defeat in the second -- while also nursing a three-game losing skid at the end of the prelims.

Still, other teams are openly admitting to avoiding San Beda in the crossover semis, knowing that once the Red Lions gained their full strength, they were unstoppable.

In fact, San Beda is in a similar scenario as the last season, where they beat Lyceum twice after also being seeded third in the Final Four, and then bouncing back from a Game 1 loss in the finals before capturing the title in their best-of-three finals against Mapua.

San Beda coach Yuri Escueta believes his stalwarts could pull off another impressive run, but for now, their focus is to keep healthy after some of his players missed their last assignment due to injuries and exhaustion.

“We have to prepare. Main key is for us to be healthy first, then take it one game muna,” Escueta said.