Excitement is in the air for the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons, who have a date with history to look forward to.
But scoring a second straight win against the Adamson Soaring Falcons won’t be easy.
UP Fighting Maroons’ coach Bo Perasol said this after they hurdled the Falcons, 73-71, in their Final Four showdown last Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
In their rubber match at 2 p.m. today at the Araneta Coliseum, the Fighting Maroons will have to figure out a better way to get past the Soaring Falcons.
Doing so will allow the Maroons to reach the best-of-three finals of the 81st University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament.
“They (Falcons) are a very resilient team. I kept on telling them that whatever happens, we have to go through these types of games,” said Perasol.
The Fighting Maroons have not been in the Final Four in the last 21 years.
The last time UP won a game in the Final Four was back in 1997, when the Maroons upset the top-seeded FEU Tamaraws, 70-69, to force a Game 2 as well. But UP did not get past FEU in the rubber match after the Tams claimed a similar 70-69 triumph over the Maroons.
“Both teams are gunning for history, us making the finals, same thing with UP. It’s going to be a fun game. It’s going to be a classic game,” said Falcons’ coach Franz Pumaren.
The winner will get to fight the defending champion Ateneo Blue Eagles in the finals.
The Falcons, who are on their sixth semifinals appearance, have not been in the finals in 26 years. They last tried to end the long drought but lost to the La Salle Green Archers, 69-64, two years ago.
Since last entering the finals in 1992, Adamson is slightly favored make it to the finals this time around, considering Pumaren’s record.
Pumaren carries with him a reputation of having coached the La Salle Green Archers from 1998 to 2009, where he led them to five men’s basketball championships, including a four-peat from 1998 to 2001. He had his final championship with the team in 2007.
Statistically, though, offensive numbers favor the Maroons with their averages of 80.3 points and 51.6 percent field goal percentage to the Falcons’ 73.5 points and 43.6 percent.
But defensively, UP is the inferior team as it lets teams score an average of 77.1 points, while Adamson allows an opponent 73.5 points per game.
In their game last Saturday, the game was tied at 71-all with 3.7 seconds left, when Juan Gomez de Liano found Bright Akhuetie underneath the rim, tossing a pass to the former Perpetual Help cager.
Akhuetie, the season MVP, calmly sank a reverse layup with 2.6 seconds to go for the winning basket.
Akhuetie averages of 8.5 points, 14.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals in 31.2 minutes.
Jerrick Ahanmisi leads the Falcons with his norms of 18 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists. of 31 minutes.