DEFENDING champion Nazareth School of National University and Adamson U pulled off contrasting wins Sunday to keep their share of the lead even as Far Eastern University-Diliman also prevailed and kept abreast of the leaders in the UAAP high school boys basketball tournament at the Filoil EcoOil Centre.

RJ Colonia stood tallest for the Bullpups as he came through with 22 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals as NU’s Nazareth School defeated Ateneo, 86-78, while Peter Rosillo chalked up 23 points to tow the Baby Falcons to a convincing 81-70 win over UP Integrated School.

With six players putting in double-digit scores led by Luke Felipe’s 18 points, the FEU Baby Tamaraws swamped La Salle-Zobel, 86-56.

Nazareth School and Adamson now share an impressive 8-1 win-loss record but they are set to part ways on Wednesday when they tangle for the solo lead.

It may be recalled that the Bullpups nipped the Baby Falcons, 79-76, on opening day.

“Statement win sa amin,” said NSNU first-year mentor Kevin de Castro. “Yung second round, yung gusto namin, yung goal namin is to win as many games as possible.”

Despite stringing up eight consecutive wins, coach Mike Fermin says he is not satisfied with the way his Baby Falcons played before and they cannot afford to dish out the same if his team wants to even up things against the Bullpups on Wednesday.

“It was a good game but it was sloppy win for us. Ang dami naming turnovers, mga miscues sa defense. It means na marami pang kailangang ayusin going into that game (Wednesday) against a very strong team,” said Fermin.

FEU, for its part, logged its seventh win in nine games good for the third spot.

Coach Allan Albano liked FEU-Diliman’s distributed offense, which was the key to the Baby Tamaraws’ most recent juniors’ title, as well as sharing the ball.

“Yes, ito talaga yung balanced attack. Iyan ang sinabi ko sa kanila before the UAAP na noong last nag-champion ang FEU noong 2016, walang naging season MVP noon. Walang nag-Mythical Team noon. It was a team effort,” said Albano.

“Ito ang gusto naming mangyari. Especially ito, ang ganda ng assists namin ngayon, we had 25,” he added.

VJ Pre had a double-double outing for the Baby Tamaraws with 12 points and 10 rebounds. John Rey Pasaol shot 14 points, Dwyne Miranda contributed 11 points while Kirby Mongcopa and Liam Salangsang each scored 10.

The loss ended the Junior Archers’ three-game winning streak.

Mark Llemit had 20 points and 11 boards as the University of Santo Tomas moved in a tie with La Salle-Zobel in fourth place at 4-5 following a 68-54 conquest of the University of the East.

The Blue Eagles fell to 3-6, while the Junior Fighting Maroons and the Junior Warriors slipped to 1-8.