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WITH JUST a game remaining in each team’s calendar, the only interesting thing to watch for is who’ll get the second twice-to-beat advantage. We now know who the Final Four teams are and the match ups as well.

The Ateneo-UE matchup will be very interesting to watch for both teams are title-hungry. Though Ateneo is ranked first and will have the twice-to-beat advantage, it won’t be a walk in the park for the Blue Eagles, as they have battled with the Red Warriors to two very close games. Ateneo won both games but this Final Four matchup will be too close to call. Both teams love to run but Ateneo has the height and heft advantage while UE has experience to their side. For Ateneo to advance, the much-touted rookies will have to play like veterans and not let inexperience take over their heads.

The dynamics of the series between FEU and La Salle will be known after their final elimination games. If both teams finish the eliminations with similar win-loss records, the match up will become a virtual best-of-three series. If both teams go opposite directions based on the results of their final games, then the team that won its’ final game will gain the twice to beat advantage. Again, this series is too close to call as they ended up 1-1 in their head to head match up in the eliminations.

For the fun part (the predictions), I see Ateneo advancing to the finals but they’ll have a tough game against UE. And for me, La Salle will make it to the finals but barely.

But there’s still a game left in the eliminations. Will the Ateneo-La Salle game be the last one this season? Ateneo will be pressure-less when they enter the court. But for the Eagles, they’ll still be fighting for school pride and honor. La Salle, on the other hand, will want to finish strong so they can clinch second place…and so does FEU when the Tamaraws face the Warriors. As for the other games, the UP-UST and Adamson-NU games will be as exciting as the Final Four “team scrimmage,” for they’ll be fighting for pride and honor too.

Let’s review the games of Week 9.

Thursday, August 28

FEU 64, NU 60. Three things went for FEU in this ball game: The Tamaraws avenged their 69-61 first round loss to the NU Bulldogs, they formally clinched a Final Four slot after missing the ride in the last two seasons, and Mac Baracael finally suited up after the shooting incident. After a see-saw battle in the first quarter, both teams went into runs with NU drawing first blood with a 14-5 run to take a 10-point lead 31-21 midway in the second quarter. Then FEU finished the quarter with their own 61-2 run to take a 37-33 lead at the half. The Tamaraws extended their lead to 9 at 44-35 courtesy of Mark Barroca and a triple by Ben Fernandez. Baracael capped his return with a jumper with five seconds remaining in the third to give the Tamaraws a 56-48 lead going to the last quarter. NU held FEU scoreless in almost six minutes of play in the fourth as the Bulldogs took a 58-56 lead with Jewel Ponferrada and Chris Catamora doing the damage. But Barroca sparked an 8-2 finishing kick to give FEU the win. With the win, FEU improved to 9-3 while NU goes down to 2-10.

De La Salle 81, UST 79. An exciting ball game that featured a shoot out between two stars and capped by a questionable coaching decision that led to the La Salle win. After a tight first half, JV Casio, Rico Maierhofer and Peejay Barua went to work and took control of the game in the third quarter, working on both ends of the court and limiting UST to 11 points to take a 54-47 going to the fourth. The fourth quarter featured a shootout between Casio and Jervy Cruz , with Casio mixing shots from the perimeter and lay-ups, and Cruz doing everything in the paint. Cruz fought hard to keep the Tigers with in a single possession in the fourth quarter, but Casio kept on providing the Archers the much needed buffer. La Salle was up 79-74 with 24 seconds remaining when Emilian Vargas made five straight points, his last field goal coming in with five seconds remaining to make it a 79-all ballgame. After a miscue by the table officials, a replay of the last five seconds was ruled, and the Archers were to inbound from backcourt. But to everybody’s surprise, UST coach Pido Jarencio called a time out, presumably to map out a defensive scheme. The Archers were fortunate because they didn’t have any time outs left. So acting coach Jack Santiago was able to draw up a play that led to the buzzer beating tip-in by Maui Villanueva. La Salle goes up to 9-3 while UST fell two games behind UE for the last Final Four slot.

Saturday, August 30

FEU 71, UP 70. FEU moved closer to clinching a twice to beat advantage in the Final Four as the Tamaraws survived a gritty UP Fighting Maroons. Fighting with nothing to lose and everything to gain, the Maroons kept the game close in the first 32 minutes of play, with the sweet-shooting Martin Reyes proving the much needed fire power from three-point country while Woody Co and Jay Agbayani operating in the paint. But a balanced attack by the Tamaraws led by Andy Barroca and the comeback kid Mac Baracael kept FEU above water. Trailing 53-51 coming in to the fourth quarter, Baracael and Paul Sanga sparked a 14-3 run to finally gain control of the game, 65-56 with five minutes remaining. The scrappy Maroons wanted to make an impression in this game, and dropped their own 10-2 bomb to cut the deficit to 1 67-66 with a minute left. But JR Cawaling hit a triple from deep right and Baracael converted a freebie to give FEU enough cushion 71-66 with 28 seconds remaining. Mark Lopez’s freebie and Migs de Asis’ triple came a bit too late for the Maroons, thus giving FEU their 10th win in 13 games. UP dropped to 3-10.

Ateneo 83, NU 58. Ateneo clinced the number one spot and a twice to beat advantage in the Final Four as the Blue Eagles routed the NU Bulldogs and finally slew and buried the ghost of Season 70. The Blue Eagles had a jack-rabbit start, leading by as much as 16, 23-7 before settling to a 26-16 score going to the second quarter. A 16-5 NU run gave the Bulldogs their first and only lead at 32-31 midway in the second. But Ateneo countered with their own 18-5 bomb with Chris Tiu scoring nine straight points on two triples and a three point play while Jai Reyes and Eric Salamat hitting a triple each to finally give the Blue Eagles control at the half 49-37. Ateneo was all over NU in the second half, even limiting the Bulldogs to ten points in the fourth quarter to set up the rout. The Blue Eagles are now at 12-1 while the Bulldogs continue to go down further at 2-11.

Sunday, August 31

De La Salle 84, Adamson 79. For the second stright game, Acting Head Coach Jack Santiago and his Final Four-bound Archers were pushed to the wall, this time by an Adamson team fighting only for respect. But in the end, La Salle relied on end game poise and experience as the Archers beat a pesky Adamson Falcons to catch up with FEU in the standing. The Falcons kept the game close as the Archers failed to pull away early in the game. Santiago didn’t want a close game but the Archers went on slow motion after a fast start. After trailing by 3 at the half, Adamson dropped an 11-6 bomb to take their first lead at 44-42. In that stretch, Rico Maierhoffer was slapped a technical foul for hanging on to the rim, something he wouldn’t have done if Franz Pumaren was around. Archer Bader Malabes hit a triple with a little over five minutes remaining to regain the lead at 64-63. But the Falcons continued with their ascent as they battled with the Archers point for point until the scoreboard read 70-all with no time left. It was still tied at 76-all with a minute and forty-six seconds left in overtime when rookie LA Revilla hit a triple that built a buffer between the two squads. JV Casio and Maierhofer added five more freebies for the win. La Salle improved to 10-3 while Adamson goes down to 2-11.

UE 89, UST 87. UE clinched the last spot in the Final Four race as the Warriors ousted the UST Tigers in a very exciting match that almost went into the UAAP history books. The wounded Tigers by taking an early 8-0 lead after almost four minutes into the game. After Paul Lee and Paul Zamar help cut the deficit to two 11-9, Jervy Cruz sparked another 8-2 run to give UST a 19-12 lead. From there, it was all UE as the Warriors finished the first quarter strong with a 11-0 run to take a 23-19 lead. The UE run continued in the first three minutes of the second quarter with another 6-0 blast to give the Warriors their first double digit lead 29-19. UST tried so hard to trim the deficit but the Warriors defense, which contained Cruz and the paint, forced the Tigers to a number of turnovers while converting these to points in the other end. UE was up 16 51-35 early in the third when the lights in the Philsports Arena went off. When the lights went on, UE was unstoppable, even taking a 24 point lead before ending the third quarter with a 74-52 lead. Then a sense of urgency engulfed the UST bench. Making mini-runs, the Tigers cut the UE lead to 15, 81-66 when coach Pido Jarencio was tossed out of the game for complaining too much. After Lee made it 83-66 for UE, UST dropped a 21-5 bomb to trail by only one, 88-87 with 37 seconds remaining. Zamar was fouled in the next play but was only able to convert one freebie. Then miscues and confusion hit the Tigers when they forced attempts from three point country and failed, thus giving the Warriors the win. UE will meet Ateneo in the Final Four.

Tags: Adamson-Falcons, Ateneo-Blue-Eagles, De-La-Salle-Green-Archers, FEU-Tamaraws, NU-Bulldogs, Petron, UAAP, UE-Red-Warriors, University-of-Sto.-Tomas-Growling-Tigers, UP-Fighting-Maroons

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