The UAAP drew first blood with the stars from Far Eastern, Santo Tomas, State U and National U topping their NCAA rivals from Philippine Christian, Letran, Mapua and Jose Rizal, 58-54.
The NCAA made it even at one-game apiece, later on, as the selection from Perpetual Help, San Beda, San Sebastian and St. Benilde whipped their UAAP counterparts from La Salle, Ateneo, Adamson and University of the East, 67-64.
One-time NCAA MVP winner Leo Najorda of San Sebastian came through with clutch baskets as they avenged the loss suffered by the Loreto Tolentino-mentored NCAA team early on.
Toti Almeda shone brightest among the UAAP stars in the first game.
Almeda and Najorda won the MVP honors presented by ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc.’s Kate Contreras, Dr. Ramon Cercado of Perpetual Help and La Salle’s Danny Jose.
"Our goal was to show unity and I believe we accomplished it. We played as if we’ve been playing together for a long time now," said FEU’s Koy Banal, the winning coach in the first game.
Perpetual Help’s Bay Cristobal was the second game’s winning coach.
Earlier, UE’s KG Canaleta bested San Beda’s James Hudencial and Ateneo’s JC Intal to crown himself repeat champion of the Samsung slam dunk competition.
Canaleta, who led the Red Warriors to the 2004 Final Four, scored a pair of perfect scores he highlighted with a one-handed slam over a man standing and with a foot resting on a monobloc chair as he read a newspaper.
It delighted a highly-appreciative Saturday crowd, dazzled his opponents and wowed the five judges that included former PBA superstar Samboy "The Skywalker" Lim.
Hudencial, for his part, also made some heads turn as he finished a surprise second with 48 points, a point ahead of Intal, who beat Canaleta in a PBL slam dunk contest early this year.
In the other side events, Ateneo’s Chris Tiu dethroned Jose Rizal’s Wynsjohn Te in the three-point shootout competition while the Adamson tandem of Patrick Cabahug and Leo Canuday edged out Te and Jose Rizal teammate Lester Lindaya for the Trendworks 2-3 balls trophy.