The Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles hope to build off their strong opening day performance, while the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers will try to put a painful first loss behind them, when these two rivals clash on Thursday, in the first of two UAAP men's seniors division basketball games at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.


The defending four-peat titlists got their 'Drive for Five' [championships] underway with a strong 41-29 second half performance, to dispatch the Adamson University Soaring Falcons 73-57 last Sunday.

The two teams were separated by just four points at the break, but like most games last season, adjustments at the break by the Ateneo coaching staff spelled the difference. The Eagles went on to hold the Falcons to 33 percent field goal shooting, aided by the fatigue suffered by Adamson's 'Big Three' of Rodney Brondial, Alex Nuyles and Eric Camson, each of whom played at least 31 minutes.

Meanwhile, UST suffered a heartbreaking 73-72 loss to the FEU Tamaraws last Saturday, as their own mistakes proved to be their undoing. With half a minute left, the Tigers up 72-69, Kevin Ferrer was called for basket interference on the Tams' side, cutting their lead by two points. Then off a timeout, Jeric Fortuna got stripped by Terrence Romeo while trying to kill time, allowing a streaking RR Garcia to nail the game-winner.

The Tigers established center Karim Abdul early, and it paid off against the FEU frontline. Abdul posted 17 first half points and nine rebounds in the first 20 minutes of the game, but he was held to just seven markers in the second half.

UST will likely try to get their shooters back on track in this match, as Aljon Mariano, Jeric Fortuna and Kevin Ferrer were a combined 9-of-32 from the field in their season-opener. - AMD, GMA News


ADMU projected starting five - Greg Slaughter (17 points on 8-of-13 shooting, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks vs ADU), Nico Salva, Oping Sumalinog, Kiefer Ravena, Juami Tiongson

UST projected starting five - Jeric Teng (18 points including 4-of-6 from 3pt, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal vs FEU), Karim Abdul, Aljon Mariano, Jeric Fortuna, Kevin Ferrer