The UP Fighting come out of their debut appearance in the World University Basketball Series with a 0-2 record.
UAAP Season 87 champions UP Fighting Maroons crashed out of the 2025. World University Basketball Series as they were unceremoniously dumped by University of Sydney, 96-77, in their classification match on Sunday at the Yoyogi National Stadium Second Gymnasium in Tokyo.
After falling short of their comeback bid against Korea University in their opener, UP just couldn’t get things going on the offensive end against the Australians. The loss left the 3-peat Filoil champs winless in their first-ever appearance in the tournament.
Despite playing a better start than they did against Korea University, UP was struggling to find the mark in the perimeter Sunday and the Maroons ended up missing their first 15 three-pointers.
This hurt their cause against the taller Australians that were able to control the paint.
Sydney was able to breakaway in the first half thanks in part to the sizzling offense of Iggy Mitchell, scoring 12 points in the opening quarter alone.
Midway through the second canto, Sydney was ahead by 10, 38-28.
While the Fighting Maroons made it a game when they went on an unanswered 11-0 run to take the lead, errors ultimately spelled doom for UP.
UP allowed a 6-0 run to end the first half — which included a second-chance bucket off of a missed free throw — that gave Sydney back the lead, and more importantly momentum coming into the third quarter.
Still riding the coattails of Mitchell’s offense, Sydney buried UP in the second half, punctuated by a 9-0 blast to open the fourth quarter.
Terrence Fortea paced UP in the losing effort with 18 points, five rebounds, and one steal, while Mitchell finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and five steals for Sydney.
Harold Alarcon didn’t suit up for the Fighting Maroons in the match.