THE UP Fighting Maroons go for a first-round sweep as they face last year’s finals tormentors, De La Salle Green Archers, in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday.
UP faces La Salle at 6:30 p.m., the highly-anticipated contest serving as the final game of the first round, succeeding the penultimate battle of Adamson against UE at 3:30 p.m.
The league-leading Fighting Maroons stayed undefeated in six games after taming the UST Growling Tigers last Wednesday, 81-70.
As UP goes for a first-round sweep, matching the energy of defending champ La Salle, especially its main guns Mike Phillips and reigning MVP Kevin Quiambao, would be the key for the State U.
“The important thing is to match their [Green Archers’] effort,” said Fighting Maroons deputy coach Christian Luanzon, who spoke to the media in lieu of head coach Goldwin Monteverde.
“We all know that every time La Salle steps on the court, particularly their bigs, KQ and Phillips, if you fail to match their effort on both ends, we’re gonna be on the latter part, and we don’t want that. I think that’s what’s more important coming into the game than the X’s and O’s.”
With star point guard JD Cagulangan sidelined due to health reasons, Francis Lopez and Harold Alarcon took charge for UP’s last timeout with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Against La Salle, Cagulangan is a game-time decision, according to Luanzon.
Meanwhile, the 5-1 and second seed La Salle is coming off its second straight win, also at the expense of UST last Sunday.
Mike Phillips pulled down 18 rebounds on top of 12 points to lead the Archers, who look to extend their mastery over the Maroons to three games, the first two being the final two games of last season’s best-of-3 finals series.
“We are excited,” said La Salle head coach Topex Robinson.
“You know, UP is gonna be somebody that we’re gonna learn from. We never really called them our enemy, but we always call them as worthy rivals because their strength is our weakness. And we just wanna enjoy playing against that mighty team, you know, that really gets us excited.”
