“Fly high!”
The Ateneo de Manila University cheered its collegiate men’s basketball team for being the first-ever champions of the World University Basketball Series (WUBS) on Thursday.
WUBS is an annual champions league-style, invitations-only tournament for leading universities’ basketball teams.
For its first edition, top universities from Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines participated from August 9 to 11 at the Yoyogi National Stadium Second Gymnasium in Tokyo.
The Philippines’ Ateneo emerged as champions after defeating Japan’s Tokoi University players, the hometown team, at 68-59.
Reports said that Dave Ildefonso showed the way with 12 markers as the Blue Eagles completed a sweet sweep of the tournament under a single-round robin format.
“Congratulations, Blue Eagles! Fly high!” Ateneo said in a Facebook post.
The Ateneo Blue Eagles also had a “tough win” against Taiwan’s National Chengchi University on August 10, scoring 88-78.
Prior to that, they defeated Indonesia’s Universitas Pelita Harapan with a score of 125-39.
The Blue Eagles’ victory comes after being defeated during the 84th season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines by the University of the Philippines’ Fighting Maroons.
