THE UP Fighting Maroons seek for a Final Four twice-to-beat advantage when they face the also-ran NU Bulldogs in the UAAP Season 87 men's basketball tournament at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion today.

The Final Four-bound Maroons and the Bulldogs clash at 3:30 p.m., succeeding the battle between the FEU Tamaraws and the UE Red Warriors at 12 p.m.

UP (9-1) needs two things to clinch that top two finish in the 14-game elimination round which merits the semis bonus.

The first is for UE (6-4) to lose to FEU (3-7) and the second for UP itself to beat NU (2-8).

That combination would secure a top two finish for the Maroons as well as for the defending champs De La Salle Green Archers and thus their win-once, twice-to-beat semis incentives.

A UE-UP win combination, however, will only put the Maroons on the cusp of a twice-to-beat incentive since in that event UE could still win 10 games at max.

UP is coming off a dominant, 75-47, win over Ateneo de Manila on Oct. 30.

Despite the big win, Monteverde said expect the Maroons to keep on grinding in the homestretch of the eliminations.

"Well, expect that we will work harder, I mean we will improve the team further slowly but surely," said Monteverde.

"I think we still have four games, and you know each game would be a stepping stone for us to be better. It's important that we stay healthy and then in a way, slowly, slowly, we'll still improve."

Meanwhile, the cellar-dwelling Bulldogs are fighting for survival as they need to win their last four games starting against the Maroons to give themselves a shot of making the Final Four.

NU aims to put an end to its three-game slide, the last of that losing streak being a 58-74 defeat to UE on Oct. 26.