Far Eastern University-Diliman (FEU-D) finally cracked Ateneo de Manila University, booking a dominant 111-73 victory to claim the twice-to-beat advantage in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 88 high school boys’ basketball Final Four on Wednesday at the Blue Eagle Gym.

Prior to this game, the Baby Tamaraws had lost both of their elimination round outings against the Blue Eagles — bowing 90-71 last 14 January and suffering a heartbreaking 86-82 overtime defeat last Sunday.

First-year Baby Tams head coach Mike Reyes was glad to finally see FEU-D triumph over Ateneo.

“This win is really important because if we fall 0-3 to Ateneo, we’ll have a hard time convincing our players that we can beat them,” said Reyes, a two-time UAAP champion with Ateneo back in the 1990s.

It was a strong all-around outing for the Baby Tamaraws, racing to a 20-10 opening quarter while limiting the Blue Eagles to a horrid 4-of-14 shooting from the field.

The Blue Eagles, outside of Jude Eriobu who had 35 points on 12-of-16 shooting with 16 rebounds and five blocks, never got going as the rest of Ateneo shot just 15-of-50 from the field.

Noah Banal was held to just four points on 1-of-8 shooting, Jay Leal scored six points on 2-of-6 shooting, while Zane Kallos managed four points on 2-of-9 shooting.

FEU-D closed the game with a 40-point final quarter, pushing its lead to a game-high 41 points.

“We’re satisfied because we were able to achieve our objective, which is to play well in 40 minutes,” Reyes added.

Cabs Cabonilas, the presumptive Most Valuable Player, led the way with 28 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocks. Dwayne Enriquez added 19 points on three triples, JB Cagurungan contributed 13 points, while Yosef Raneses added 12 points and seven assists.

However, FEU-D will be without 17-year-old guard Pat Sohm for the Final Four opener on Sunday at the same Katipunan venue after he received two technical fouls with just 10 seconds left in the first half.

The other semis pairing will see top seed National University Nazareth School take on De La Salle-Zobel at 1 p.m., also on Sunday.