The Warriors gun for their fifth straight win after dropping their opening day game to Far Eastern U as they try to stay within striking distance of the pacesetting Tams, who continued to show the way with a 6-0 slate.
But the Eagles, tied with the UP Maroons for third at 3-2, are also out to sustain their back-to-back victories and gain a share of second place, making the 4 p.m. encounter doubly interesting.
The UP Maroons, on the other hand, try to bounce back from back-to-back setbacks as they tangle with the Falcons in their 1:30 p.m. opener. Adamson is in sixth place with a 2-3, losing its last three games after winning the first two.
Still, focus will be on the UE-Ateneo duel, two teams fancied to crowd FEU, along with La Salle, for this year’s cage crown.
Ateneo coach Norman Black expects a tougher game against UE several days after surviving the taller, heftier UP side in a bruising 71-63 victory at the Big Dome.
"It’s going to be tougher playing UE," said Black, who drew big numbers from the troika of JC Intal, LA Tenorio and Doug Kramer in their UP win. "One big reason is that they full court press all the way."
Truly, the Dindo Pumaren-mentored Warriors have been drawing strength from their defense particularly their full-court press.
"It’s our strength because we get our offense by playing defense," said Pumaren, who steered the
Recto-based school to a Final Four finish on his debut last year. "But we expect Ateneo to come out strong because they’re really playing good right now."
Pumaren has also been getting superb efforts from his rookies particularly from the trio of Bonifacio Custodio, Mark Borboran and James Martinez.
Custodio and Borboran, both transferees from Polytechnic University of the Philippines and Jose Rizal, respectively, combined for 33 points while Martinez, who came from 2004 NCAA high school champion San Beda, added 13 in routing a hapless host squad.
Meanwhile, chess action unfurls on Sunday with defending champion La Salle ˜backstopped by former national junior titlist NM John Paul Gomez˜ taking on last year’s third placer Ateneo at the UE briefing room in Recto, Manila.
Set at 8:30 a.m., other games pit Santo Tomas versus UP, FEU against Adamson and UE versus National U.
Playing in the women’s side were UST against NU, La Salle versus FEU, and UE against Ateneo.