Chasing no. 1
Most everyone inside the press room asked University of the Philippines players and coaching staff what it felt like to make the Final Four of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament for the seventh straight year—the longest active streak—after a 70-65 nipping of Adamson on Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Lost in the din of that is the fact that it is only the Fighting Maroons who have a shot at nudging idle National University off from No. 1, or as a literal second prize, the Bulldogs have a firm inside track at the second twice-to-beat advantage.
Guard Gerry Abadiano knows it, and bluntly refused to be overwhelmed with what they have achieved so far in their first season of life without two-time champion point guard JD Cagulangan.
“This isn’t really our goal yet,” Abadiano, after shooting 16 points to backstop Francis Nnoruka’s double-double effort, said of their string of semifinal appearances that dates back to 2018. “We still have a lot of games to be played and every one of those counts for us.”
The Maroons rose to 9-3 with their fifth straight win and have a shot at tying the Bulldogs with a sweep of their last two games, which would be against Ateneo and La Salle, which took an unexpected tumble earlier at the hands of Far Eastern University, 84-83.
“We always look at the game that’s in front of us,” coach Goldwin Monteverde said in Filipino after drawing 16 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks from Nnoruka. “There are still a lot of things for us to improve on on both ends and we still need to focus on getting better for our last two games.
“Once [the] Final Four [starts], it’s going to be a lot tougher for everyone.”
With the La Salle loss, the race for the last two berths will become very heated, as the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers still have a shot at No. 2 granting that everything, as in everything, falls their way in the last two games and those of the Maroons.
That means that the Tigers have to beat National U and then the Tamaraws and hope that the Maroons lose their last two for them to fall into a tie for No. 2, before their tie is broken.
And with the Green Archers now at 6-5 to be in fourth, Ateneo is suddenly back in the game with a 5-6 card. Even the Tamaraws and the Falcons, who are both at 5-7, have very slim chances of being No. 4.
Ray Allen Torres led the Falcons with 23 points, but Adamson lost steam when it mattered as it played catch-up from 15 points down early.
The Falcons came to within 58-56 after a Torres bucket at the 4:11 mark of the fourth, only for UP to convert five unanswered points capped off by a Reyland Torres triple with 2:25 remaining to which practically snuffed the fight out of Adamson.
Meanwhile, Kirby Mongcopa finished just three assists shy of a triple-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and Janrey Pasaol contributed 17 points and seven assists to lead the Tamaraws.
Far Eastern also got 14 points from Mo Konateh and 12 points from Jorick Bautista, even as Earl Abadam fired 18 points for La Salle, which has continued to have an up-and-down year in its first season after the Kevin Quiambao era.
Mike Phillips had 14 points and 19 rebounds for the Archers, the champions two seasons ago.
