Rivals kick off title clash

It doesn’t get any bigger than this. Two fierce rivals, which elevated themselves as the best teams in the premier collegiate basketball league in the country, square off for the season’s biggest prize in a dream matchup.

La Salle and Ateneo get their blockbuster UAAP Season 80 best-of-three championship series going on Saturday before an expected sellout crowd at Mall of Asia Arena.

It will be the fifth time that the two teams are meeting for the title in the Final Four era with this year’s series serving as the tiebreaker after La Salle prevailed via a two-game sweep last year.

The Eagles believe they are a better team than the one the Archers beat last year.

By beating Far Eastern U in a tough Final Four matchup, the Eagles also showed they can get their acts together in the face of adversity.

“We’re a better team from last season, it’s as simple as that,” said Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin, whose team finished the elimination round with a 13-1 record.

“But we have to come down from the cloud pretty quick because we didn’t play the season just to win in the semifinals. We played this season to go as far as this team is capable of going.”

The Archers are on a roll heading into the most important games of the season and coach Aldin Ayo insists his team is focused on one goal.

“There’s really no other motivation other than the championship,” said Ayo, who has kept his practices behind closed doors this week.

The Archers have yet to lose since dropping a narrow 75-76 loss to the Eagles last Oct. 8, racking up eight straight victories, including a come-from-behind 82-75 win over Adamson in the Final Four.

The Archers also turned back the Eagles, 79-76, in their Nov. 12 clash, which actually denied Ateneo an outright finals slot.

Baldwin thinks his team isn’t far from La Salle’s level.

“I think apart from one big offensive lapse against La Salle, we’ve proven as good as they are,” said the American coach. That loss led to Ateneo’s tougher-than-expected duel with FEU, which the Eagles survived and, in the process, equipped themselves with more experience handling pressure-packed situations.