Defending champion University of the Philippines (UP) will be running with extra fuel approaching the final stretch of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 88 men’s basketball tournament elimination round.

With a Final Four seat within reach and a path to a twice-to-beat advantage open for the taking, the streaking Fighting Maroons are pumped up to extend their current four-game winning run.

Advancing to the next phase and completing a sweep of the second round get more exciting — and motivating — for UP, given the teams that it will face.

The Fighting Maroons, currently at solo second spot with an 8-3 win-loss record, will wrap up the eliminations against Adamson University on Sunday, Ateneo de Manila University on 19 November, before their finals rematch against De La Salle University on 22 November.     

“The thing about the three teams (for our last assignments), two of the three, those are the teams we lost to in the first round,” UP deputy Christian Luanzon said following the Diliman-based squad’s 70-61 win over University of the East last Saturday.

The Falcons dealt the Fighting Maroons a stinging 62-59 upset last 24 September off a go-ahead triple by Ray Torres in the waning seconds before completing the win with a defensive stop. That loss buried UP to a 0-2 start.

The Fighting Maroons recovered after that, winning their next four games, only to hit a brick wall at the close of the first round on 19 October against the Green Archers.

It was a tight battle until the final minute when La Salle broke a 69-69 deadlock with a key basket from Vhoris Marasigan and a split from Mike Phillips for a 72-69 escape.

Just like in the first round, UP bounced back by winning four in a row, including a payback over season-opening tormentor University of Santo Tomas.

While the Fighting Maroons seek vengeance over Adamson and La Salle, they eye to replicate their 83-69 rout of the Blue Eagles in their first meeting.

“And then the other team, Ateneo, was the team that arguably the team we played our best game against,” said Luanzon, recalling the match where they led by as many as 22 with big man Francis Nnoruka and Noy Remogat dropping 28 and 20 points, respectively. 

National University claimed the first Final Four berth with its league-leading 9-2 card, leaving only three seats left. 

UP is determined to pull one semis chair and, at the same time, solidify its bid for an incentive.

“So, what’s important for us is, again, we just continue to build on the momentum that we have heading into the Final Four,” Luanzon said.