Fil-Kuwaiti Rabeh Al-Hussaini stepped up when Chris Tiu struggled as Ateneo pummeled Adamson, 78-59, yesterday and clinched the first Final Four berth in the 71st UAAP basketball tournament at the Philsports Arena.

The 6-foot-6 Al-Hussaini bulldozed his way to 29 points, including 14 in the first quarter, and set the tone for the rout as the Eagles notched their ninth win in 10 outings and gained entry into the Final Four.

Ateneo has never missed the Final Four in the last 10 years.

“Well I’m happy about being in the Final Four but I think our goal is to make it to the top two so it doesn’t really stop here. It’s far from over. It’s a long road,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black.

Coming off a career-high 29 points in an 85-76 win over Santo Tomas last Thursday, Tiu fired blanks and finished with his season-low two points, both coming from the foul line.

It was the first time in two seasons that Tiu failed to score a single field goal in a game. Fortunately, Al-Hussaini, half brother of the PBA’s Carlo Sharma, was there to take up the cudgels.

In the other game, FEU erased a 16-point deficit in regulation and pulled the rug from under Santo Tomas, 69-74, in overtime.

Reil Cervantes celebrated his 22nd birthday by pouring in six of his 20 points in the extra period as the Tams moved up to 7-3 while pushing the Tigers down to 4-6.

“He’s getting better. I mean he works hard every day in practice and this year he dedicated himself to trying to improve,” said Black of Al-Hussaini, who still has one more year to play for the Blue Eagles.

“He knows that Ford Arao has already graduated so he’s going to get the bulk of the minutes at center position and he’s really taken advantage of it to the point now where he’s really a go-to-player for us,” Black added.

In this game, the Eagles also got to show their awesome running game and scoring accuracy.

Ateneo’s 25 fast break points was the most this season and its 51.8-percent shooting (27-of-52) was the highest since FEU had 51.7 (31-of-60) in an 88-66 bashing of host UP last July 17.

“We want to run, I’ve said that from the beginning. Every opportunity we could run we want to get out and run the basketball up the court as fast as we can,” said Black.

“I know we’re a big team, most people don’t expect that from us but at the same time that’s our philosophy, to get as many easy points as we can.

“Luckily our guys like Al-Hussaini, even though they’re big, they can actually run and run fast,” he added.

Eric Salamat also lent a helping hand as he fired 17 points but it was in defense where he shone the most with six steals— the most in a single game by a player in the last three seasons.

“He’s really a good player,” said Black of Salamat. “I’m sure he’ll be starting for another team in the UAAP. It happens that he’s coming off the bench behind Chris Tiu. He’s one of our better players, one of our most talented.”

Adamson fell in a share of last place with State U with a 2-8 (win-loss) card.