Bulldogs finally bite and put Maroons’ bid for No. 1 in jeopardy

With very little left to play for, the National University (NU) Bulldogs on Sunday scored the biggest upset in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament by shutting down heavyweight University of the Philippines (UP), 67-47, to put a huge dent on the Fighting Maroons’ aspirations of claiming top spot in the Final Four.

“We can’t do anything about it anymore, we’re undermanned. But as long as we still compete, that’s what’s important,” coach Jeff Napa said with a mix of Filipino after the win at UST Quadricentennial Pavilion. “I told them to finish this season strong, that’s our mindset for now.”

It was the biggest bite that the Bulldogs came up with in their underwhelming season, which has come after years of contending for the top two spots at the very least and for the title on several occasions.

National rose to 3-8 and still remained at the tail end of the eight-team pack, but the Bulldogs will remember this one as the win stymied the Maroons in their bid to wrest No. 1 spot from defending champion La Salle after UP dropped to 9-2. La Salle remains in the lead at 10-1.

“We executed our game plan properly, that’s why we got the W,” Napa added. “We aren’t thinking anymore whether we can still enter the Final Four or what. My only request to my players is to finish the season well.

“Finally, we got a win in the second round, even if it’s the [holiday break for] the dead, my players came alive somehow and they delivered on what we need to do then they really enjoyed what we are doing,” Napa added.

UP was limited to a sorry 26.2 shooting from the floor and 30 turnovers, while NU chose its shots carefully on the way to a very effective 43.9 percent clip, making seven from beyond the arc.

First chance slips

Five of those treys came from Patrick Yu, who was very efficient by draining six of his eight attempts overall on the way to 17 points. Jake Figueroa contributed 11 points and six rebounds.

The Maroons let their first chance to clinch the last available twice-to-beat armor with the loss as the Green Archers bagged the first win-once advantage after Far Eastern manhandled No. 3 crew University of the East in the earlier game.

“Like what coach Jeff said, we should just enjoy the game and remove the pressure of chasing the Final Four and I am thankful to him because even if I was struggling the whole season, he still trusted me,” Yu said.

Far Eastern, meanwhile, scored a 59-51 triumph over No. 3 University of the East to rise to 4-7 and stay in the semifinal hunt.

The Tamaraws still have three games left—chances to earn more wins that could propel them up the Final Four, which would be a bonus since they set out just to improve on their three victories last season.

“Next on the list is La Salle. Our goal this season was to show progress,” Sean Chambers, who took over at the start of the season, said after his wards dealt the Red Warriors a second-straight loss in a 6-5 card.

“We wanted to win more than three games from last year,” Chambers said of the season target. “So after that, now we want to get greedy. Now we want to get five, six, seven games.

“So that’s our goal now. We want to continue to show this kind of performance for the rest of the season, which I think we’re capable of.” INQ