It was a measure of confidence.

King Tiger Kevin Ferrer held the ball from the far side of the basket, measuring his defender Kyle Neypes. The right-handed forward swung left, and his defender slipped on the floor, as if a boxer swung a left straight on Neypes’ jaw. Stunned that Neypes seemed to have vanished on thin air, Ferrer took a long glance at Neypes to confirm if his defender is still in one piece.

With all day to shoot, Ferrer swished the 18-footer for a 48-32 lead against the defending champions.

PHOTO: UST’s Kevin Ferrer sends former teammate Neypes to the floor

That was the mood all game long for University of Santo Tomas—playing with confidence and swagger as they easily cruised to the finals of the UAAP men’s basktball finals, winning 64-55 against defending champions National University (NU) at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum today.

To abate the curse of losing twice to the Bulldogs, the Growling Tigers played an impeccable pressure and man-to-man defense, especially against NU’s Triple A in Gelo Alolino, Alfred Aroga, and Jayjay Alejandro.

Their defensive stance resulted in a woeful 20-point first half for NU, the lowest first half output by a team in the Final Four in recent history.

“The gameplan was to deny him (Alolino) the ball and pressure him all game long,” said Tiger point guard John Sheriff, pointing out to Alolino as NU’s main man of the season.

“Hats off to UST’s defense,” Alolino said. “Sometimes when they use ball screens they deny [me the ball].”

Holding a ten-point lead at the end of the first half, UST extended it to 48-32 midway in the fourth quarter after Ferrer’s ankle breaking shot on Neypes.

The Bulldogs made a final stand by continuously fouling Sheriff, who only made two of his ten free throws in the fourth quarter.

Paolo Javelona then went berzerk on offense, scoring nine points in the last two minutes, but the Bulldogs only came close, 55-61, in the last 32 seconds.

Javelona’s triple at that time was NU’s final basket of the season.

“The timing of our worse game came in the Final Four,” the graduating guard, who led his team with 17 points and seven rebounds, lamented.

Louie Vigil played the game of his life, tallying 19 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and two blocks to lead the top-seeded Tigers.

Kevin Ferrer added a modest 11 points while Sheriff had a season-high 10 points.

UST will face last year’s runner-up Far Eastern University at the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday for game one of the Finals, “a different ballgame” despite the Tigers’ dominance of the Tamaraws in Season 78 according to UST coach Bong dela Cruz.

IN PHOTOS: UST dethrones NU, books Finals dance with FEU