REIGNING three-time champion Ateneo made short work of Far Eastern University yesterday 85-72 to reach the Big Dance anew but La Salle spoiled the fun by stunning University of the Philippines 83-80 in the Final Four battle of the UAAP basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Instead of the best-of-three finals starting tomorrow, Friday, the Green Archers and Maroons go at it again, with the winner battling the Blue Eagles on Sunday at the same venue.
BJ Andrade shone for Ateneo with 16 points and three rebounds, while SJ Belangel buried three three-pointers to finish with 14 markers, three boards, and two assists.
Skipper Gian Mamuyac and Dave Ildefonso also had 12 and 11 points, respectively for the Eagles, who atoned for a numbing 83-84 loss to University of the Philippines last Sunday that cut short their 13-game win run this season and ended their 39-0 record since 2018.
La Salle coach Derrick Pumaren asked his charges to come up with their A-Game and the Archers responded.
Leaning on a fiery third quarter charge and showing poise in the stretches that mattered, the Green Archers negated the win-once advantage of the Maroons to keep their finals hopes alive.
The Maroons went into the game on a high after scoring an 84-83 victory over Ateneo last but ran smack into a high-octane La Salle offense that gave the Green Archers what seemed an unreachable 66-44 lead at the 2:24 mark of the third quarter.
UP scored two wins over La Salle in the eliminations but fell flat on its face in its bid to advance outright to the finals.
“The boys really played hard today. The boys played 40 minutes of solid basketball,” Pumaren said.
“It was a disciplined effort, and everyone was on the same page today,” he added.
UP whittled down the 22-point deficit in the third canto to 78-81 on a Gerry Abadiano three-pointer with 13.4 seconds remaining.
A split by Evan Nelle from the stripe gave the Maroons a lifeline, but Ricci Rivero missed a triple try before Nelle canned another free throw that pegged an 83-78 count, only 5.1 ticks left.
Six-foot-10 Senegalese Malick Diouf scored on a dunk in UP’s final play that proved to be too little, too late.
Nelle scattered a career-high 26 points on five treys, to go with six rebounds, seven assists, and three steals for La Salle, while Justine Baltazar notched a double-double of 15 makers and 18 boards.
Kurt Lojera also had 11 and five as the third seed Archers negated the No. 2 Maroons’ twice-to-beat advantage.
La Salle, coming off a 76-65 triumph over National University four days ago, took a 48-37 lead at the half then unleashed a crippling 16-2 blitz highlighted by a Nelle four-point play and capped by a Michael Phillips layup that padded the difference to as much as 66-44.
