Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
University of the Philippines is eyeing a clean slate against its two-time championship rival Ateneo when they collide in the second round of the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament on Sunday, Oct. 29, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Fighting Maroons hope to carry some momentum and play inspired as the current top seed of the tournament after eight games.
The Malick Diouf-led UP suffered a 99-89 loss against defending champion Ateneo last week in their rematch since Game 3 of the championship last year for a 7-1 slate in the standings.
Though the Blue Eagles are dealing with an up-and-down season with an even 4-4 record heading into their second-round meeting against the Fighting Maroons, they are definitely not to be discounted.
UP hasn’t come out on top of Ateneo since Game 1 of the Season 85 best-of-three championship series, something that they are hoping to finally change.
“We have [time] to prepare for that. We’re gonna do that, I’m sure they will also. It’s gonna be a tough game, for sure. We want to clean up a lot of things na we thought we should have done better noong kalaban sila, especially on defense. So it should be a good one. As long as players come to play,” said UP assistant coach Christian Luanzon.
While UP quickly got back on track after a convincing 77-51 bounce back win over Adamson, Ateneo couldn’t escape Far Eastern University for the second time this season following a narrow 62-59 defeat both on the same day.
“This was a good bounce back game for us coming off a loss in the last game. But it’s the start of the second round, obviously, gusto ni coach Gold (Monteverde), one thing that he emphasized even from the start of the season is just to keep pounding,” Luanzon said.
“Which means we just continue to build ‘yong mga gusto namin ma-improve as a team on both ends, and we were quite satisfied that we were able to get that bounce back performance on both ends,” he added.
Game time is at 6 p.m. for the main event of the double-header. — Nikole Javier
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Credit belongs to: www.mb.com.ph
