John Lloyd Clemente flew to the basket on his way to 14 points. —TRISTAN TAMAYO / REQUEST
For at least a day, National University (NU) tops the UAAP basketball world.
Bulldogs, Lady Hounds. It’s not important. They dominated it in the field on Saturday.
For the Bulldogs, however, the reign will be fleeting. Ateneo and the University of the Philippines collided Sunday in the highly anticipated Season 85 men’s basketball game at the Mall of Asia Arena, with the winner sharing an early lead with NU.
But until that game was over, the Bulldogs held the men’s lead on their own after a 58-54 win over the Adamson Falcons also at the Pasay City bayside arena.
“You can’t be satisfied with just your first solo. You can fall in the blink of an eye, so that’s no reason to be happy right now,” said NU coach Jeff Napa.
Lady Bulldogs, on the other hand, have always been the norm in the women’s competition.
Celebrated last Wednesday for extending its historic winning streak to 100 straight, the Lady Bulldogs clinched 101st Saturday against the Lady Falcons, 100-66.
Just days after being disappointed by the defending champion Maroons, the Bulldogs claimed their fourth win in five games, a record that will be compared by the winner of Sunday’s showdown between the overall teams. end of last season. But where the team stands right now is less of Napa’s concern than what needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t slip.
“We still need to win games. At least we got away with this win, but we’re still not satisfied. Napa said: There are many things we need to deal with.
One of those was a rebound as the Bulldogs grapple with the Falcons, who pulled down £48 compared to NU’s 40.
Making that concern more pressing is the fact that the Bulldogs will battle La Salle on Wednesday.
And the Green Archers showed how effective they were at catching missed shots, pulling down 57 rebounds – 24 of them late in attack – in an 87-70 win over Far Eastern University. Tamaraws in the other game.
“We have to put in more effort against La Salle than with the mental and physical strength to fight them,” Napa said.
Michael Malonzo helped the Bulldogs cushion the ball five points with less than a minute left before watching the Falcons beat a number of chances in a failed attempt to turn things around.
Jerom Lastimosa, who misplaced his first six shots from depth, finally connected to drag Adamson in the third round, but John Figueroa coolly sank his free throw on the other end in 4 .9 seconds, marking the Falcons’ third defeat in five opening games.
“The lucky ball came to me. I just did what I had to,” Malonzo said.
John Lloyd Clemente, who also has key shots when NU needs it, leads the Bulldogs with 14 points.
Meanwhile, the Archers were cautious about another possible disappointment just days after dropping a shocker to Oriental University (UE).
La Salle coach Derrick Pumaren said: “It was a big lesson for us and like I said, we can’t take things lightly.
The Archers have kept the Tamaraws unbeaten this season after burning through a second-half record, building a 25-point lead on Schonny Winston, Kevin Quiambao and Joaquin Manuel.
“We have to be prepared and ready against any team. We’re going to play game by game, quarter by quarter, if that’s what we need to do,” Pumaren said.
The unwinnable Tamaraws are having their worst start in the Final Four era.
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