NU MARKED TEAM
National University entered the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament with very little hype.
The Bulldogs will go into the second round of the preliminary phase not just as the new talk of the town, but also with a target on their backs.
Dragged into five extra minutes, NU turned to Paul Francisco to outlast the Blue Eagles, 71-66, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Saturday.
“My coaches and teammates kept telling me to shoot the ball despite struggling throughout the course game. I credit them for believing in me and telling me to keep shooting it,” Francisco said.
“This is good for us because we have some momentum heading into the second round and that’s always good to look at.”
Adamson made sure the Bulldogs would own the only 6-1 record after the first round, using a defensive masterclass to grind University of Santo Tomas high-octane offense to a halt for a 69-59 rout in the other game.
“I guess we just made some preparations to win most of our possessions. That really helped us,” Cedrick Manzano said after dropping 12 points and eight rebounds.
“We won in almost all our possessions, maybe not all of it, but we were getting wins there and it helped.”
The Tigers, this season’s hosts, dropped to 5-2 behind NU, which is managing its outlook despite taking the top spot after round one of the preliminaries.
“[This is a] good win for us, but we don’t care where we are right now,” coach Jeff Napa said. “What matters is how we work for every game. We don’t think about our record.”
“As long as we compete every game, we don’t think about our position, especially since the second round is just around the corner.”
Francisco scored 10 of his 13 points in the overtime period, which ultimately kept the Blue Eagles (4-3) at bay. Helping Francisco on the NU offense was Jake Figueroa, who also finished with 13.
Steve Nash Enriquez manned the floor with 12 points, three assists and three rebounds while Omar John had 11 points and nine rebounds in the win.
Ateneo, meanwhile, crashed to its third straight loss after opening the season on a four-game winning streak. Jadem Lazo’s 17-point outing paced the Eagles while Dom Escobar finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Soaring Falcons led by as many as 13 and had enough in their tank when the Tigers made a run that cut the lead to 55-50 with 7:55 to play.
Adamson punched back with an 8-4 spurt for a 63-54 cushion at the 5:35 mark of the fourth.
AJ Fransman paced Adamson’s rise to a 3-4 record with 18 points, while Ray Allen Torres ended up with 10.
Nic Cabañero finished with 23 points to lead UST, which had no answer to the defensive schemes Adamson ran in the game.
The Falcons, the league’s best defensive squad, held the league’s best scoring team to about 32 points below its top-ranked average.
