MANILA, Philippines — Down goes Ateneo.
University of the Philippines pulled away in the second half and dealt the Blue Eagles their first loss in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament, 83-69, in their Battle of Katipunan Wednesday evening at the Mall of Asia Arena.T
Francis Nnoruka powered UP with 28 points, with 21 coming in the second half. He also had nine rebounds, four steals and a block.
Rey Remogat chipped in 20 markers, while Harold Alarcon had 17.
Shawn Tuano and Kymani Ladi teamed up for Adamson with 17 and 15 points, respectively.
“Well, for me, yung preparation namin for this game, lagi naming pinagu-usapan just one part of it, but transferring it to play. But the way, yung players executed our offense at the same time, playing as a team defensively, I think yung malaking pagbabago namin,” he said.
“Sa akin siguro, we just have to keep it up lang,” he added.
The game was close through the half, with the Fighting Maroons holding a slim 40-38 advantage.
But UP broke the game wide open in the third frame, with Remogat and Nnoruka leading the charge. The duo scored 22 of the Fighting Maroons’ 24 third quarter points as they took a 64-49 advantage.
The Blue Eagles, then, tried to get out of the hole as they played catchup the entire game, but the Fighting Maroons hiked their lead to 19, 79-60, after a Remogat triple with 3:18 remaining that shut the door on an Ateneo comeback.
The defending champions Fighting Maroons, thus, strung together three straight wins and rose to 3-2, good for solo fourth.
Ateneo, the only remaining undefeated team of the season prior to this game, dropped to 4-1 and tied with National University for the top spot.
The Blue Eagles will now try to bounce back as they take on the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers on Saturday at the Blue Eagle Gym in Quezon City.
UP, on the other hand, will face the Far Eastern University on Saturday at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion.