With Final Four scenario still uncertain, UST and Ateneo take care of business
There’s just the matter left of how the UAAP Season 87 women’s basketball Final Four will be played out. University of Santo Tomas (UST) cleared some things up on Saturday.
The Tigresses routed the Adamson Lady Falcons, 60-47, to officially tab the No. 2 seed and will own a twice-to-beat advantage in the semifinals in the unlikely event of a National University crash in its last game.
Internally, however, UST needs to figure some things out.
“We want to see the best from our players no matter what,” UST coach Haydee Ong said. “But we weren’t consistent from the first to fourth quarters. The silver lining is that our defense [was solid] and Adamson only managed 47 points.”
Twin towers
With their 11th win in 13 games, UST is waiting on whether there will be the usual Final Four format. National U can activate a stepladder semifinals by sweeping the elimination round—which would be the most probable scenario.
If that happens, the teams ranked No. 3 and No. 4 will square off first and the winner advances to a knockout match against UST.
With the Tigresses handing the Lady Falcons their fifth loss in 13 games, and Ateneo crushing out-of-it-all University of the East, also-ran University of the East, 64-54, in a morning matchup, the Blue Eagles will face Adamson in the first stepladder match.
Ateneo twin towers Kacey Dela Rosa and Sarah Makanjuola joined hands in an 11-2 run that gave their team a 60-46 cushion on the way to a fourth straight victory.
Dela Rosa had 19 points and 14 rebounds for her 13th double-double of the season, and added five blocks and four steals to power Ateneo. Makanjuola was no slouch herself, chipping in 14 points and 17 rebounds.
No foreign player
“I’m happy we won the game but also not contented [with the way we played] heading to the Final Four,” said assistant coach Bacon Austria. “We told the girls we take it day by day hoping that every game would help us improve going to the Final Four.”
Brigette Santos, who finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, anchored a 10-2 run that allowed UST to pull away in the third quarter for a 47-34 lead heading into the last 10 minutes of the match.
Tacky Tacatac knocked in four three-pointers to lead UST with 13 points. Kent Pastrana had 12 points and eight rebounds for the defending champions, who are playing without a foreign student-athlete this season.
In another match that featured eliminated squads, University of the Philippines finally broke out of its five-game spiral and whipped Far Eastern U, 76-61.
