Maroons in UAAP Final Four: Accolade of the decade

MANILA, Philippines — Marooned in the wilderness for 21 agonizing years, University of the Philippines finally found its way to the UAAP men’s basketball Final Four again.

Playing their guts out in a must-win setto in Season 81, the Fighting Maroons put an end to two decades of futility with Final Four-clinching 97-81 triumph over La Salle last night at the MOA Arena.

The Maroons unleashed a 14-1 windup in the first quarter to seize control and tirelessly kept their foot on the pedal en route to securing UP’s first semis stint since 1997, when a squad coached by Nick Jorge and led by Paolo Mendoza made it that far.

“I reminded the players that we haven’t had any accolades for the past decades and now we have a chance to make history for UP and they responded well,” said UP coach Bo Perasol, whose wards secured No. 3 seed by finishing with an 8-6 win-loss record and forged an F4 showdown with second ranked Adamson (10-3).

The Archers wound up with a similar 8-6 card but slid to fourth due to UP’s superior quotient head-to-head. For now, La Salle is assured of at least a playoff for the fourth spot but it will advance outright if Far Eastern (7-6), the last team in contention, loses to Adamson on Sunday.

Brothers Juan and Javi Gomez de Liano lit up the scoreboard with 27 and 19 points, respectively, draining four triples apiece, while MVP frontrunner Bright Akhuetie dominated the paint with 20 rebounds and 16 markers to lead UP to the epic win.

Earlier, holder Ateneo, showing no let-up in a non-bearing outing, put the exclamation point to its perfect run in the second round with a merciless 102-62 annihilation of injury-riddled Santo Tomas.

Despite the absence of coach Tab Baldwin who was sick and slated for lab tests at the hospital, the Eagles played their usual efficient selves and raced to a 16-0 start to take the fight out of a Tigers team that couldn’t keep in step without rookie sensation CJ Cansino (ACL) and slotman Steve Akomo (head).

The Eagles finished the elims with 12-2 and a seven-game streak heading to the Final Four, where they are seeded first, while the Tigers bowed out with 5-9.

“We wanted the players to step up. This time around, the next man up was everyone else.

The scores:

First Game

AdMU 102 – Kouame 22, Navarro 17, Mendoza 9, Andrade 9, Go 8, Ravena 6, Asistio 6, Nieto Ma 5, Nieto Mi 5, Black 4, Verano 4, Daves 4, Belangel 3, Wong 0, Tio 0, Mamuyac 0

UST 62 – Subido 18, Agustin 15, Marcos 13, Mahinay 6, Huang 4, Lee 2, Ando 2, Cosejo 2, Bataller 0, Zamora 0, Bonleon 0, Caunan 0

Quarterscores:  34-13, 58-31, 83-42, 102-62.

Second Game

UP 97 – Ju. Gomez de Liano 27, Ja. Gomez de Liano 19, Akhuetie 16, Desiderio 10, Manzo 6, Dario 5, Jaboneta 5, Tungcab 3, Gozum 2, Lim 2, Prado 2, Murrell 0, Vito 0.

DLSU 81 – Baltazar 22, Melecio 19, Caracut 12, Samuel 8, Santillan 6, Montalbo 5, Serrano 5, Bates 2, Manuel 2, Dyke 0.

Quarterscores: 25-17, 52-29, 75-54, 97-81