UP, La Salle begin finals showdown
THE UP Fighting Maroons and the De La Salle Green Archers begin their first-ever Finals clash in UAAP men's basketball history at the Mall of Asia Arena today.
UP and La Salle will collide in Game 1 of the best-of-three Season 86 Big Dance at 6 p.m., hours after the 8-peat seeking NU Lady Bulldogs and the UST Golden Tigresses kickstart their women's division Finals duel at 12 p.m. at the same venue.
The Fighting Maroons finished as the top seed in the elimination round with a 12-2 record, the first-ever UP men's basketball team to have accomplished such a feat in league history. They split their season series against the Green Archers, winning the first round, 67-64, on October 18 and losing the second, 79-88, on November 5.
In the Final Four, UP, the Season 84 champion, capitalized on its win-once advantage and dethroned Ateneo to make its third straight Finals appearance and give itself a shot at redemption after losing the crown to the Blue Eagles just seven months after ending a 36-year title drought in May of last year.
«We're already seeing the finish line. It's just a matter of us putting the pedal to the metal in the race. For us it's all about taking advantage of what we built all throughout the year and finishing it up hopefully the way we wanted to, the way we envision it,» said UP deputy coach Christian Luanzon.
A point of concern for the Fighting Maroons is their consistency on the offensive end after shooting just 30 percent against the Blue Eagles in the semifinals last Saturday.
«We shot the ball 30 percent. It was a defensive game, that's one thing. At the end of the game, you gotta put the ball in the hoop. We're gonna try to look and clean up some things we can improve offensively on how we can efficiently make more baskets and to continue on in the defensive end,» he said.
Meanwhile, the Green Archers finished the eliminations just behind the Fighting Maroons with an 11-3 win-loss card.
Like UP, La Salle took full advantage of its win-once incentive after booting out the NU Bulldogs, 97-73, last Saturday.
The Green Archers thus made their Finals return after six years and put themselves in a position to win their first title in seven years or since
