Lady Bulldogs tighten grip on Final Four spot

National University (NU) strengthened its hold on a Final Four spot after cruising to a dominant 94-40 victory over the University of the East (UE) in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 89 women’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Following a stunning one-point loss to De La Salle University on 8 November, the Lady Bulldogs have bounced back with consecutive victories, improving to an 8-4 record and completing a season sweep of UE. NU now holds a one-game advantage over third-place Adamson University, which sits at 7-5.

“Last game we weren’t able to finish strong, so we slipped up at the end. We just made sure we learned our lesson from that last game. As I said, ‘If we have a chance to build a good lead, as much as possible, we maintain it ’till the end,’” NU head coach Da Olan said.

“Good thing we were able to pull that off.”

The Lady Bulldogs face a challenging stretch ahead, with back-to-back matchups against two teams that handed them losses earlier in the season.

NU will first take on defending champion University of Santo Tomas on Sunday before facing the University of the Philippines on Saturday. Both games will be held at the Big Dome.

Meanwhile, UE has struggled to build on its breakthrough victory over La Salle, which snapped its 31-game losing streak on 28 October. The Lady Warriors have since dropped their last four games to fall to 1-11.

UE’s offensive struggles also resulted in the lowest point total recorded by any team this season, surpassing Far Eastern University’s previous low of 42 points in its first-round loss to UST on 14 October.