You probably clicked on this post, thinking, “Aw, this is gonna be ANOTHER UP-dominated game.” But no. La Salle is the other good team in the league. So this was a very close game.
The first quarter was kinda close, but La Salle played better. UP was making some shots, however, I’d say they would make 1 shot for every 5 shots they took. La Salle, meanwhile, was making 4 shots every 5 shots they took. (I’m not being literal here. I’m just estimating it to give you an idea of how they played). Anyway, the first quarter ended with La Salle up 28-21.
The second quarter was also kinda close. There was a stalemate around the 7:00-6:00 time period, but UP went on an 11-0 run afterward. However, La Salle played better for the remainder of the quarter. At halftime, the score was 47-38.
Immediately in the third quarter, La Salle made a three. But they only scored three points the entire quarter. The third quarter was a very lopsided comeback for UP.
The fourth quarter was the best part. La Salle recovered from their poor third quarter. There were a lot of reviews, and the last 4 seconds lasted minutes! La Salle inbounded the ball with 2.9 seconds left, but CJ Cansino stole the ball, and the game was over. Final score: 67-64.
The next game is UP vs Ateneo. Well, that’s it guys! Bye!
Note: I looked at the box scores on https://www.teampilipinas.info/2018/09/uaap-live-updates-schedule-results.html.
This is a recap of the 1st round of the eliminations. Yes, I’ll cover each UP game today. (I decided just to cover the UP games because those are the games that my parents like to watch.)
UP’s first game was against Adamson. And it was a blowout. The first quarter even ended with a half-court shot from a UP player. That was the only time I saw something like that this season. Final score: 68-51.
The next game was also UP-dominated. You might be saying, “Oh, for sure UP will go 14-0.” Well, no. You see, UP’s only one of the good teams in the league. But since they are one of them, they managed to beat UE in another blowout. The first quarter even ended 32-9. To think that a team would not even score 10 points in a quarter is just crazy. But it happened.
One of the upcoming games is UP vs NU (on the last gameday). It will probably be a close game. But their first round meeting wasn’t. UP won the game by 18. It was the second half where they pulled away.
Finally, someone who can challenge UP. FEU actually forced UP into overtime. (That means that they needed to play an extra period because there was no winner after four quarters.) UP thought they made a game winner at the end of the fourth quarter, but they released the ball too late. Still, in overtime, UP managed to win.
Another lopsided victory for UP. Well, not right away. UST did quite well in the first quarter, but the third quarter ended with UP ahead by 35. The game ended with them winning by 31.
I already wrote an in depth view of this game, but if you’re short on time, just read this one. La Salle is one of the other good teams in the league, so this was a close game. The final seconds were very long, but when CJ Cansino, UP’s shooting guard, intercepted a La Salle pass, the game was over.
UP played against Ateneo, another good team. The first three quarters were very close. In the fourth quarter, though Ateneo was playing better at first, UP made a huge comeback to force overtime. However, Ateneo outlasted them in the extra period. Finally, UP lost. They ended the first round 6-1.
Okay, so I’m going to write a second article on the last game (UP vs NU), because it’s very important. But more on that at the end. For now, let’s talk about what happened in the first six games of the second round.
UP vs Adamson was also the first game of the second round. And it was a blowout. Adamson only scored 9 points in the second quarter. UP’s biggest lead was 26. The final score was 77-51.
The second game was UP vs Ateneo. I didn’t watch it because I was sick, but I’ll try to give you a quick recap on the game. UP, despite having multiple injured players, played very well. But in the fourth quarter, Ateneo came back. However, UP managed to survive, winning the game 65-60.
The next game was UP vs La Salle. I did watch this one, I was much better by then. The game was very close all throughout, though La Salle kinda played better in the first half. La Salle was ahead by a few points in the final minutes, but UP finally took the lead again. But La Salle recovered, and UP kept missing important shots, which cost them the game.
After that was UP vs UE. It was very close, so let me analyse the fourth quarter. UP was holding on to a very delicate lead when UE finally destroyed it. But UP came back. And with UE missing a lot of major shots, UP managed to seal the victory.
UP vs FEU in the first round went to overtime. But this one wasn’t even close. FEU played quite well in the late first and early second quarters, but by the fourth quarter, they were down by a lot. The game ended 81-64.
I’ll end this one with UP vs UST. UST was playing very well in the early first quarter, which is very surprising, because they only won one game (as of November 17). But UP came back later in the first quarter, holding on to that for the rest of the game, and winning the game. (I can’t remember the score or see it online.)
So, as I said at the start, I’ll leave the last game out of this blog, because it’s very important. That’s because, along with La Salle vs Ateneo, that game will greatly affect the standings. Let’s look at the different scenarios.
But first, you have to understand how the Final Four works. The top four teams will play in two separate playoffs (#1 vs #4 & #2 vs #3), with #1 and #2 having twice to beat advantages. That means that even if they lose, they still have one more chance, and if they win the second game, they’ll make it to the finals. (If #1 and/or #2 win the first game, they’ll automatically advance to the finals.)
If UP and La Salle win, UP will be #1, La Salle will be #2, NU will be #3, and Adamson and Ateneo will play a tiebreaker game to determine who #4 will be.
If La Salle and NU win, there are two possible scenarios. The first will happen if UP loses by 18 points or less. In this scenario, La Salle will be #1, UP will be #2, NU will be #3, and again, Adamson and Ateneo will play a tiebreaker game for #4.
The second scenario if La Salle and NU win will happen if NU wins by 19 points or more. In this scenario, La Salle will be #1, NU will be #2, UP will be #3, and again, the Adamson-Ateneo tiebreaker thing.
In the end, if La Salle and NU win, it really doesn’t matter which scenario happens, because a practical best of 3 is guaranteed to be played between UP and NU. But actually, their first game is just to decide who will get the twice to beat advantage. However, for all practical intents and purposes, it’s just a best of 3.
If Ateneo and NU win, there are also two possible scenarios. The first is that UP will be #1 and NU will be #2. This will happen if UP only loses by 17 points or less. But if NU wins by 19 points or more, they’ll be #1, and UP will be #2. Then, La Salle will be #3, and because Ateneo won against La Salle here, they won’t need to play against Adamson anymore.
If Ateneo and UP win, UP will be #1, #2 La Salle will play #3 NU in a virtual best of 3 (you already know how that works), and Ateneo will be #4. Again, here, Adamson will be eliminated.
So, I know it’s complicated. But once you study more on this, it’s actually very easy. Okay, now I’m done. Bye!
I told you a big game was coming. La Salle beat Ateneo, and Adamson beat UE, so Adamson could still make the Final Four. But as of my writing, Ateneo already won the play-off game. Okay. But I’m gonna rewind a bit to the UP vs NU game.
Let me just say, you would not want to watch the first quarter. UP scored the first 10 points of the game. NU finally scored some points at the end of the first quarter, though. Still, UP ended the first quarter up 23-13.
So, you’re saying to yourself, “Hm, but NU’s a good team. The second quarter will be their comeback, right?” No. NU did lose the second quarter only by 2 points (19-17), but the score at the end of the quarter was 42-30.
The third quarter wasn’t as bad as the first, either. UP did end the quarter up by 13 points, but NU played quite well also. They were very close to making a comeback. However, UP just resisted it, ending the quarter up 58-45.
UP went on a huge run early in the fourth quarter. NU was no longer showing signs of a comeback. UP was ahead by more than 20 points at one point. And so, the game ended in a 79-54 victory for UP. What? Remember, in a previous blog, I said that the game would probably be close? Well, I was wrong. I guess I’m not the best at those things.
So the Final Four is coming soon, and the matchups will be UP vs Ateneo and La Salle vs NU. UP and La Salle have the twice to beat advantage. If you don’t know how that works, read my previous post. My mom’s going crazy over UP vs Ateneo tickets. Okay, now I’m done. Bye!
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