UNIVERSITY of the Philippines hurdled University of the East and realized an immediate goal yesterday.
Showing poise in stretches that mattered, the Fighting Maroons carved out an 81-68 victory over the Red Warriors for their second straight win and clinched a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four of the 84th UAAP basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
Fil-Am forward Zavier Lucero scattered a game-high 20 points, to go with 14 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks for UP, while Ricci Rivero chipped in 17 markers and four boards.
CJ Cansino also had eight points and six caroms for the Maroons, who scored a fitting follow-up to their 72-69 decision over La Salle last Saturday and hiked their record to 10-2.
UE, coming off a 61-91 thrashing at the hands of Far Eastern University four days ago, remained winless in 12 matches.
In the first game, FEU tripped La Salle 67-62 for its third straight victory and gained solo fourth.
RJ Abarrientos led the Tamaraws with a game-best 21 points, on top of three rebounds, and two assists, while Xyrus Torres added 14 markers and three boards.
Patrick Sleat also had 10 points for FEU, which rose to 6-6.
The Green Archers fell to 7-5, good for third.
UP coach Goldwin Monteverde said his charges are still far from where he wants them to be.
“Working pa rin kami as a team – how to get iyong rhythm namin as a team, how to execute as a team which nakikita ko we’ve been doing for the whole game kanina,” Monteverde said.
“Siyempre itong remaining games namin although alam namin nasa top two na kami, we need to work on pa rin, and continue to build that momentum towards sa Final Four,” he added.
After taking a 44-26 spread at the half, the Maroons padded their lead to as much as 51-32 in the third canto and still held a 59-44 edge heading into the payoff period.
The Warriors whittled the deficit to 52-61 at the 8:00 mark of the final stanza but UP answered with a 12-4 blitz punctuated by a Rivero alley-oop dunk off a Joel Cagulangan pass that pegged a 73-56 count with 4:20 left.
Jojo Antiporda paced UE with 15 points, while Nico Paranada had 13.
“At the half, iyon ang sinabi ko sa kanila. We have to play 40 minutes of basketball to beat La Salle. We had a bad third quarter,” Tams strategist Olsen Racela said.
“Luckily in the fourth quarter, we stepped up on defense and executed on offense, so suwerte rin kami because La Salle didn’t have Winston today, so we just took advantage of it.”
Evan Nelle scored 15 points for La Salle, while Justine Baltazar and Kurt Lojera contributed 13 and 10, respectively.
