MANILA, Philippines - It can’t get any tighter than this.
Closely fought from the start, the race for the UAAP Season 77 men’s basketball Final Four will stretch until the last two playdates of eliminations and go to at least one playoff to reach a definitive conclusion.
Officially, only two teams are in the semis: Co-leaders Ateneo and Far Eastern U, with identical 10-3 cards.
But that doesn’t mean automatic Top 2 and twice-to-beat incentives for the duo as the Eagles and the Tams are slated to face off tomorrow in a crucial encounter. Winning team takes the No. 1 ranking and win-once bonus while loser will have to go through either La Salle or National U in a rubber match for second seed.
The Archers and the Bulldogs share third spot at 9-4 and are set to mix it up in their own high-stakes elims duel. The winner will move up to a knockout for No. 2 while the losing squad will have to wait for Tuesday’s game between University of the East (8-5) and out-of-contention University of Santo Tomas (5-8) to see what’s next in their slate.
A win by the charging Warriors will earn them a do-or-die for the No. 4 spot versus DLSU or NU while a loss by UE will send the host team packing while sending the Archers and the Bulldogs to the next phase.
“Everyone’s chasing a game here and there, so we don’t know what’s going to happen; it’s going be a circus (in the) last two games for the teams that are involved,” said DLSU coach Juno Sauler, who despite their 66-68 loss to NU looks confidently ahead to “an exciting last two playdates” of the elims.
NU coach Eric Altamirano, for his part, said it now boils down to staying focused.
“We run our own race. Ang importante (what’s important is) we take care of our own business and just see from there kung saan kami aabot (where it leads us),” he said. “Right now, we don’t want to worry about the other games or who will win there; we just want to focus on our game.”
The last regular match of the elims on Tuesday – University of the Philippines (1-12) versus Adamson (0-13) – also promises to be as explosive. The first-round battle between the cellar dwellers was fought under a Final Four atmosphere and the victorious Maroons (77-64) even held a bonfire celebration at Sunken Garden to celebrate the feat, which ended a harrowing 27-game skid.