It’s honest to say that College of Santo Tomas (UST) and Nationwide College (NU) will likely be coming off wake-up calls. However considered one of them can be pressured to remain in a slumber.
The Growling Tigers and the Bulldogs battle it out for the primary time in Season 87 of the UAAP males’s basketball event, with each seeking to put behind the bitter style of lopsided losses the final outing and get again on observe of pursuing the unbeaten elimination spherical leaders.
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Recreation time is 4:30 p.m. at Good Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, the place Santo Tomas and Nationwide will go alternative ways whilst Adamson is listed because the red-hot favourite over struggling Ateneo within the 6 p.m. recreation.
Santo Tomas, after a 2-0 begin, took a 69-56 loss to the Hovering Falcons final weekend, earlier than the Bulldogs ran smack right into a well-organized College of the Philippines crew and misplaced, 89-62 on Wednesday, their worst defeat in 5 years.
“That’s why our coaches maintain telling us that we have to respect all of the groups,” Santo Tomas gunner Nic Cabañero had mentioned in Filipino after the defeat. “It’s a wake-up name for us to enhance on what we have to enhance on.”
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“We have to study from this and we’ll proceed to dedicate this season to our households and the UST neighborhood.”
It was such a surprising loss for the crew that went on a large recruiting binge within the offseason focusing on not less than a Last 4 look.
And Adamson, which got here off a 30-point loss to defending champion La Salle, coolly dusted off the win that labeled the Falcons as semifinal contenders.
“This can be a lengthy season, we aren’t fascinated by that. We glance [at] it game-to-game,” mentioned coach Nash Racela when instructed that his crew flaunted Last 4 potential.
“Each recreation is totally different, and that’s what we (teaching employees) preach [to] the gamers,” Racela added. “The protection that [we] will likely be going through will likely be totally different the following time round so we are able to’t be proud of this end result.”
Decimated roster
The Blue Eagles, in the meantime, try to make do with a roster that was decimated by transfers, commencement and a few merely leaving as they’re off to their worst begin within the Tab Baldwin period.
Compounding issues for Ateneo is the harm to Chris Koon, the skipper who was out of its final two video games due to a foot harm.
By the way, this would be the first assembly of the 2 faculties since Ateneo ousted Adamson in a playoff for the final Last 4 slot final season.
In the meantime, defending girls’s champion UST and NU, undefeated in three video games, collide in a rematch of final yr’s Finals at 11:30 a.m., whereas Ateneo and Adamson, each sporting 2-1 slates, slug it out in an equally fascinating duel at 1:30 p.m.
