UP Maroons start with a whimper but finish with aplomb

Every team is looking to put a dent on University ofthe Philippines’ (UP) unbeaten run in Season 87 of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament.

Every time, though, the Fighting Maroons have responded like only champions can, as Adamson was the latest to fall on Saturday when UP rallied for a 69-57 win after the Soaring Falcons came up with a stunning 26-9 run in the first quarter that set the tables up for an upset at Mall of Asia Arena.

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“Sometimes, there really are games like that,” coach Goldwin Monteverde said in Filipino after his Maroons remained perfect in five games. “We were really trying to execute offensively in the first half, but our shots were not falling.

“So we just talked in the huddle to stick with the game plan, work as a team [and] look for better shots,” he went on. “Adamson was making a lot of three-pointers, so we had to remind each other that defensively, we need to work hard.”

The Maroons trailed by as large as 31-9 before getting their acts together.

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And when they did, the Falcons simply fell by the wayside.

Harold Alarcon finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and a block as Terrence Fortea, who waxed hot in the third quarter, contributed 13 points after draining all of his three triple tries. He also had five rebounds.

Meanwhile, National University zoomed to its sixth straight win in women’s play after a 67-39 dismantling of University of the East earlier.

The Lady Bulldogs, though, were still far from satisfied after coughing the ball up 26 times.

Shooting contest

“I practice those shots. I guess it boils down to confidence and belief in myself,” Fortea said after a virtual marksman’s contest with Adamson’s Monty Montebon and Manu Anabo in a stretch in the third frame.

“We also talked to keep on pounding despite the massive lead of (Adamson) so I am just happy that we got the win,” Fortea added.

Quentin Millora-Brown was dominant in the paint and finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds, highlighting the 51-31 advantage that the Maroons ended up with in bench production.

“After that first quarter, I thought that we did a great job responding,” Millora-Brown, the one-and-done forward from Citadel College, said. “I thought that [in] our first quarter we came out stagnant, flat, couldn’t hit shots, wasn’t getting stops on defense from the game plan that we planned for.

“But I thought that it was a great response from everyone.”

The crippling sequence

Big man Dikachi Ududo and Millora-Brown’s charity shots to end the third quarter jump-started the Maroons in pulling away with a 17-1 run that decimated the Falcons.

UP is two games away from sweeping the first round, with final assignments lined up against the revamped University of Santo Tomas and Season 86 tormentor La Salle.

And Monteverde, along with the rest of his Maroons, will continue reaching for the next level.

“When we are in the middle of a game, we aren’t thinking of the final result of losing or winning,” Monteverde said. “We just stay in the present.”