CJ Cansino and Evan Nelle hope to end their collegiate careers as champion as UP and DLSU open their UAAP men’s basketball Finals series today. UAAP photo
Maroons, Archers collide in UAAP Finals
UNIVERSITY of the Philippines and La Salle open their first-ever UAAP men’s basketball best-of-three championship series today at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The top-ranked Fighting Maroons will enter the 6 p.m. contest with a five-game winning streak, including a 57-46 victory over Ateneo that ended the Blue Eagles’ reign last Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Green Archers are the league’s hottest team, winning nine in a row. La Salle, which has yet to taste defeat since a 64-67 first-round loss to UP, is riding the crest of a masterful 97-73 rout of National University in the other half of the Final Four.
Tip-off is at 6 p.m.
CJ Cansino is just glad that the Fighting Maroons’ off-season preparations are slowly coming to fruition.
UP, which ended a 36-year title drought in the Season 84 bubble, went immediately to training after losing to Ateneo late last year.
“Sobrang happy ako kasi lumabas kung ano mang tinrabaho namin for the last 10 months,” Cansino said.
“Happy ako na for my last year, pumasok kami ng Finals,” the Fighting Maroons skipper added.
Finally healthy following his second career ACL injury that happened in May last year, Cansino also expressed how ready he is in the league’s biggest stage.
“Mas prepared ako. Yung katawan ko, physically and mentally, mas prepared ako sa Finals na ito,” said Cansino.
The 6-foot-1 gunner, who is now set to play in the Finals for the third time in his collegiate career — the other one came in his rookie season with University of Santo Tomas Growlin– said that he has high expectations for himself.
“Sobrang taas ng expectations ko sa sarili ko,” Cansino. “Sana maabot ko iyun.”
Gunning for a 10th championship, the Green Archers are eyeing to end a seven-year heartbreak.
First-year coach Topex Robinson is hoping to steer La Salle to its first title since a Ben Mbala-led crew dominated the 2016 competition.
For the Green Archers, they are pinning their hopes on Kevin Quiambao, the leading MVP candidate who fully embraced Robinson’s system.
“When I took the job, I told the players it’s either you win a championship or you die trying,” said Robinson. “If you’re representing a program that’s rich with tradition, you’re put in a situation to honor the teams and the players that came before you.
“I’m just so grateful for the opportunity to represent DLSU because of the championships it has won. I just told the players that we’re not a part of it. We could etch our own names in that rich tradition,” he added.
With the Green Archers looking good, Robinson hopes that his troops will enjoy the game and be ready for what their opponents will throw at them in the series.
“We have an opportunity now, and that’s why we want to make sure that we will take care of that opportunity and not just roll down and just die swinging. We’re just gonna give a good fight against UP,” said Robinson.
Meanwhile, the eight-peat seeking Lady Bulldogs are not taking the Tigresses lightly in the Finals opener at 12 noon.
“I think with the championship experience of NU, wala kaming advantage whether mainit kami or hindi. We have to really prepare and work harder for NU,” said UST coach Haydee Ong, whose wards had to go through a two-game war with UP in the Final Four before advancing to the Finals.
Opening a heavy basketball day will be two high school boys’ games.
Adamson and Ateneo, winners on opening day last November 21, will face off at 8 a.m. followed by UST and UP Integrated School which are gunning for win No. 1 at 10 a.m.
Action in AdU gym yesterday saw NU-Nazareth School post its second straight win at the expende of University of the East, 78-61, while holders FEU-Diliman entered the win column with a 76-72 conquest of La Salle-Zobel.
