MANILA - After failing to accomplish it the easier way, San Sebastian ended up doing it the hard way.

The Stags buried the ghost of their foiled sweep bid by trouncing the suddenly flat-footed Jose Rizal Heavy Bombers, 79-64, Monday to clinch their first trip to the finals in six seasons in Season 85 of the NCAA at The Arena in San Juan City.

The win sent San Sebastian into the best-of-three finals where reigning three-peat champion San Beda awaits.

And San Sebastian needed their captain—Jimbo Aquino—to turn back Jose Rizal.

The prolific Aquino, who sat out in a 65-72 loss in the first game of their Final Four series Friday for a disqualifying foul he incurred in a 65-71 setback to San Beda Wednesday, gave the Stags not just the scoring punch the Stags badly needed but a huge lift with his presence.

Heavily guarded, Aquino still swished in 14 points he spiked with a pair of booming triples, and, more importantly, provided the leadership his team lacked in the first game of the Final Four which led to a loss.

“We lost a leader during his suspension,” said San Sebastian coach Ato Agustin. “Now that he (Aquino) is back, the boys suddenly played inspired basketball and he’s really our go-to-guy, the heart and soul of the team.”

Calvin Abueva fired 18 points to also help the Stags barge into the best-of-three finals for the first time since making it that far six seasons ago and closer to their first crown since going all the way seven years back.

“We’re glad to be in the finals, everyone is excited because this is the first time we’re all going there,” said Agustin, a former PBA MVP.

Curiously, the last two times the Lions and the Stags faced off in the championships were in 1996 and 1997, both resulting in a San Sebastian victory.

The Stags jumped the gun on the suddenly slow-footed Bombers as they raced to a 29-8 start at the end of the opening quarter with the troika of Aquino, Abueva and talented rookie Ian Sangalang leading the onslaught.

Slowly but surely, the Bombers clawed their way back and trimmed their deficit to as low as eight points on a pair of free throws by Cameroonian dynamo Nchotu Njei, 38-46, less than seven minutes to go in the third quarter.

But a 12-1 blitz ignited by a six-point swing by the scrappy Abueva zapped the last fight out of the Bombers, last year’s runners-up whose bid of ending a 37-year drought came to a crashing halt with this loss.

And then it was cruise control from there.

The win made up for the heartbreaking bid to complete a historic sweep of the elimination round that would have catapulted them straight into the best-of-three finals.

Instead, the Stags did it the hard way.