ATENEO de Manila beat Adamson in its final eliminations game 66-61 to claim the number one spot and the twice-to-beat advantage in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball final four.
Ateneo finished with an 11-3 record, identical to that of the University of the Philippines, but secured the number one seed ahead of the Final Four (F4) by virtue of a superior point differential after the Katipunan neighbors split their elimination matches.
Ateneo also ended its season with a six-game winning streak, with a loss to National University (NU), its only second-round setback.
NU holds the number three spot in the final four.
The Blue Eagles won their final game of the second round, which had originally been scheduled for late October but was postponed due to Severe Tropical Storm Paeng.
Adamson, which finished 7-7, goes into a playoff for the last final four spot with La Salle, which also got to 7 wins in last game against University of Santo Tomas (UST).
La Salle rallied late to turn back UST 77-72, and had to sweat out the result of Ateneo-Adamson as only an Adamson loss would have kept the Archers’ season alive.
The La Salle-Adamson playoff is set for Sunday for the last spot on the Final Four.
Guard Evan Nelle scored a season-high 25 points for the Archers, helping send the bottom-of-the-table Growling Tigers to a 1-13 record for the season.