Of all the craziness that wrapped the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament, there was one matchup that truly became the mirror of insanity and that was Adamson University vs. University of the Philippines.
The Soaring Falcons took te season series against the Fighting Maroons but their games during the eliminations were no regular ones.
Both games went to nerve-wracking last plays and the two teams will once again duke it out in the semifinals with the second-seeded Falcons (10-4) holding the twice-to-beat advantage over no.4 UP (8-6).
Similar paths
What may seem like an eternity is actually just three years when both UP and Adamson ranked dead last in the standings of the Season 78 tournament.
The two teams shared identical 3-11 records in 2015 and both weren’t looked at as serious contenders even if the Fighting Maroons started that season at 2-0.
Adamson had a faster journey to the Final Four as it got to the semifinals in Season 79 as the fourth seed but was quickly knocked out of the competition after losing to eventual champion De La Salle.
UP, for its part, took a longer route and advanced to the Final Four in 2018, the first semifinals appearance for the Fighting Maroons since 1997.
The Soaring Falcons do have a slight experience advantage over UP but at this point the Fighting Maroons don’t have anything to lose.
Big man problems
If UP has the disadvantage in terms of experience then by hell does it have the advantage in the center position.
Bright Akhuetie is undoubtedly the league’s best center and he successfully brought his bruising offense from University of Perpetual Help in the NCAA to the UAAP.
The league’s eventual MVP vastly outplayed Adamson’s center Papi Sarr in the two matchups during the eliminations round and although the Soaring Falcons won both games they better have their big man play up to par, or at the very least slow Akhuetie down.
Akhuetie averaged 22 points and 17.5 rebounds against the Falcons during the eliminations and his first line against Adamson was a 20-20 double-double.
And those numbers are almost twice of what Sarr has averaged with 11.5 points and six rebounds.
Sarr was under Akhuetie’s command in the second game that the Adamson center pulled down just one rebound in 27 minutes of play in the Falcons’ 80-72 second round win.
Sean Manganti
There wasn’t much to say about this breaker since the name Sean Manganti was just perfect.
This breaker didn’t need any fancy words for a title or a short phrase regarding the forward’s tendency to send UP’s beating heart to oblivion.
UP head coach Bo Perasol did acknowledge that his team has to do better in playing in the dying minutes of games since that is usually the time when Manganti decides to ferry the Fighting Maroons’ souls down the River Styx.
Manganti drained the Soaring Falcons’ game-winner for their 69-68 win in the first round after scoring on a floater with 0.7 seconds left in the game.
And if UP thought that one was heart-wrenching, then what the Fighting Maroons’ experienced in the second round was absolute betrayal.
UP was on a 22-7 run in the fourth quarter of its second round game against Adamson to cut a huge deficit to just four, 74-70, when Manganti decided that enough was enough and gore a blazing spear through the Fighting Maroons’ hoping heart.
Manganti’s three gave the Soaring Falcons a 77-70 lead that led to an 80-72 win, stopped UP’s hopes, and legitimized his reputation as the Diliman’s most hated basketball person.