Even on their off days, the UP Fighting Maroons are still a force to be reckoned with.
The Fighting Maroons got off to a slow start against the Adamson Soaring Falcons, missing 16 of their first 19 shots, but still managed to pull off a 12-point win, 69-57. UP trailed by as much as 22 points, 31-9, early in the second quarter, before Harold Alarcon spearheaded their comeback efforts.
Adamson’s 22-point lead was quickly whitted down by the Fighting Maroons with an 18-2 run over the last seven minutes of the first half that brought the deficit to a much more manageable six points, 33-27, by halftime.
Come the second half, the Fighting Maroons took full control of the contest. They retook the lead of the match in the third quarter then proceeded to blow out the Soaring Falcons in the fourth quarter. UP led by as much as 16 points in the final period, 63-47, in a stunning 48-point turnaround from the second quarter lead of Adamson that they overcame.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Soaring Falcons’ strong start was all but a distant memory as the Fighting Maroons marched to their fifth double digit win in as many games to maintain solo first place in the UAAP Season 87 Men’s Basketball tournament.
Three reserves led the way for UP, with Alarcon top-scoring for the team with 14 points along with eight rebounds and a block. Terrence Fortea added 13 points, including four-of-four shooting from the field, five rebounds, an assist, and steals in only 16 minutes, while Quentin Millora-Brown contributed 11 points and 14 rebounds.
The Fighting Maroons are now just two wins away from a sweep of the first round, though their remaining matches are versus the teams right behind them in the standings, the UST Growling Tigers and the DLSU Green Archers. These two games will be an early test for UP’s title hopes and if they can successfully hurdle UST and DLSU, it will only fortify their place as this year’s championship favorites.
The Fighting Maroons have set themselves apart from the rest of the competition this year, and as their comeback win against Adamson demonstrated, it will take no less than 40 minutes of near-perfect basketball to bring them down.
