UAAP Season 81 men's basketball Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Bright Akhuetie banked in the go-ahead basket as University of the Philippines stunned Adamson University, 73-71, to force a knockout game over 14, 000 fans cheers for a finals spot in Season 81 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Akhuetie becomes the first MVP from UP in 32 years after Eric Altamirano in 1986, when the Fighting Maroons won their lone championship.

Deadlocked at 71 all, Akhuetie received a lobbed inbound pass from Juan Gomez De Liaño then drilled in the game-winning layup off the board with 2.6 seconds remaining, powering the Fighting Maroons to the big win.

NowheretogobutUP is an inspiring story of commitment, belief, sacrifice, and collective action. Sometime January of 2014, when a group of UP Alumni banded together and decided it was time to give back to its alma mater by helping our student athletes, no one said that it was going to be easy. But that frenetic bunch knew deep inside, that it was going to be worth it.

0 win - 2013
1 win - 2014
3 wins - 2015
5 wins - 2016
6 wins - 2017
Final 4 - 2018

With this record, for UP, it was indeed nowheretogobutUP! As the game buzzer sounded signaling UP’s entry to the Final 4 last night, I couldn’t help but shed a tear while flashing a big smile. It was not merely because it took us 21 years before we can go back to the Final 4, it was because the words “no one said it would be easy, but it will be worth it” came crashing back to my mind" said Renan Dalisay

UP and Adamson will battle anew on Wednesday at the Araneta Coliseum, with the winner taking a seat in the championship series.