Eagles have landed ­- in semis

MANILA, Philippines - Regaining its focus after its shocking loss to University of the East, defending champion Ateneo bucked the ejection of big man Edwin Escueta due to a “wrong uniform” to thwart Adamson, 55-52, and formalize its entry to the Final Four in the UAAP Season 73 seniors basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum yesterday.

Ryan Buenafe, Emman Monfort and Nico Salva took over in the payoff period as the Eagles completed the come-from-behind victory, their ninth in 12 games, joining the Far Eastern U Tams (9-2) in the next round.

At the same time, the Eagles maintained their domination of the Falcons (8-4), dealing the San Marcelino-based cagers their 27th straight loss in their head-to-head showdown dating back to 1997.

“It’s so hard to win,” a relieved Ateneo coach Norman Black said. “I felt they (AdU) knew exactly everything we wanted to do and how to exactly defend it. Good thing is we knew exactly what they wanted to do, too, and we did a great job defending against them.”

Buenafe hit back-to-back baskets while Monfort canned a triple and two charities and Salva knocked down a semi-hook in an 11-4 fourth quarter windup that won it for Ateneo, which rebounded from its 60-62 loss to UE last Thursday.

Earlier, National U outsteadied UE, 69-68, to keep its Final Four bid alive at 5-6 while slamming the door on the Warriors (4-8), last year’s losing finalists who missed the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

Escueta was found to have violated UAAP rules on playing uniforms at half time, wearing shorts in the first half that did not have the league-mandated Philippine flag patch. Team officials said the patch was torn off during the pre-game round-robin.

As per UAAP rules, this merited an ejection plus a technical foul assessed on Ateneo and ball possession for Adamson at the start of the third.

Lester Alvarez eventually made the two technical free throws then Alex Nuyles hit a trey to give the Falcons a 26-22 margin, which they stretched to 28-22.

“It was difficult because we went down right away. We gave them two foul shots and then allowed them to score right away. Luckily, it happened at half time and we had a lot of time to recover,” said Black.

Normally, wrong uniform provides a ground for protest and forfeiture but the UAAP has already amended its rules on this aspect, reducing the penalty to ejection of the offending player, two technical foul shots and possession on the opposing team.

Emmanuel Mbe pounded on an undersized UE side to score 18 points, pull down nine rebounds and swat away two shots as the Bulldogs, despite wasting an 11-point lead in the last period, put an end to UE’s giant-killing ways.

The Warriors (4-8) came off back-to-back major reversals vs Adamson (71-63) and Ateneo but saw their playoff hopes dash and their streak of eight straight Final Four appearances end.

“We’re taking it one game at a time. Of course, we want to be in the Final Four. But that can be a stepping stone or a stumbling block, good thing we used it as a stepping in this game,” said NU coach Eric Gonzales, whose team is seeking to catch up with fourth-running La Salle (7-4) for the last semis berth.

“The guys’ defense was tremendous – UE only scored nine points in the third quarter – and they showed good discipline in the face of adversity in the endgame,” he added.

The Bulldogs opened a 57-46 lead in the third and maintained an 11-point spread (61-50) at the 7:21 mark of the fourth on Mbe’s inside basket.

However, UE unleashed a major rally behind James Martinez and Ken Acibar to threaten at 65-66, 1:01 left.