De La Salle University‘s Kevin Quiambao. Photo from UAAP Media.MANILA — The UAAP and the NCAA are both on the last stretch of their respective basketball tournaments of the present year.

De La Salle University and the University of the Philippines (UP) will rekindle their modern-day rivalry to decide the Season 87 men’s basketball champions, with the Green Archers eager to complete a repeat, while the Fighting Maroons are raring for redemption.

National University (NU), meanwhile, is awaiting the Final 4 stepladder winner between defending champions University of Santo Tomas (UST) and Adamson University on Wednesday in the women’s basketball side.

Also included in the UAAP side are the junior basketball squads, as NU-Nazareth and the University of the East (UE), and the UST Tiger Cubs and Far Eastern University-Diliman are still fighting for the championship round tickets.
Mapua University’s Clint Escamis. Photo from NCAA Philippines.On the other hand, Mapua University currently holds a 1-0 advantage over De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in the grand-old league’s finals after Clint Escamis and the Cardinals torched the Blazers last Sunday.

But aside from the UAAP and the NCAA both being close to concluding yet another action-packed season, they, originally, were scheduled to share the Araneta Coliseum on December 14.

In the schedule that the UAAP posted last weekend, Games 1, 2, and 3 of the Finals were set to be played at the Araneta Coliseum (December 8), MOA Arena (December 11), and again, Araneta (December 14), respectively.

The NCAA, which already played their game 1 last Sunday at the Big Dome, will hold all remaining games of its Best-of-3 series at the same venue, Game 2 on December 7, and Game 3 on December 14 according to the schedule that they released on November 23.

If that were to push through, the Mapua-CSB decider* will be played at 2:30 p.m., while the La Salle-UP Game 3* will be closing out the day at 5:30 p.m.

However, the UAAP already clarified this, quickly squashing the supposed crossover between the two leagues at the Big Dome.

“Game 2 or 3 of the junior high school boys' basketball finals, as well as the potential Game 3 of the women’s and men’s basketball finals, will be played on Sunday, December 15,” they said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This change comes as the Araneta Coliseum encountered a scheduling conflict for Saturday, December 14, which had been reserved by both the UAAP and the NCAA.  In light of this, the UAAP is moving its finals Game 3 to December 15, Sunday so the NCAA may hold their potential Game 3 on December 14.”

The UAAP has yet to announce the venue for its potential Game 3.