MANILA – Gone in two hours.

The first batch of tickets for the much-anticipated showdown between the Ateneo Blue Eagles and De La Salle Green Archers sold like hotcakes on Monday when the Ticketnet booth at Araneta Coliseum opened at 9 a.m.

By 11:15 a.m., 570 tickets were already sold.

The league-leading Blue Eagles, sporting a 5-1 record, will meet the streaking Green Archers, winners of four straight, at 5 p.m. this coming Sunday after the 12 p.m. encounter between Far Eastern University (FEU) and University of the East (UE).

In an unprecedented move, tickets for each game are being sold separately.

“Tickets for each game will be exactly the 15,000-capacity of Araneta,” said basketball tournament director Mark Molina.

Molina, who is also the FEU Athletics director, added that there will be no standing- room-only (SRO) tickets to be sold on game day.

The Araneta Coliseum has started selling the tickets for the game on Monday starting at 9 a.m. All the four schools, which will play on Sunday, will start selling the tickets on Wednesday until Saturday.

There will be a three-hour period in between the games to allow the crowd in the FEU-UE game to vacate the venue.

FEU, the host school this season, hopes to curb ticket scalping with this novelty concept.

“This idea is really to have enough tickets to supply the demand. We believe that this can significantly decrease, if not eliminate ticket scalping,” said Molina.

“Now, there will be 15,000 tickets to be shared only by two schools instead of four schools.”

Studio 23 will air the first game on a delayed telecast at 2 p.m. while the Ateneo-La Salle showdown will air starting at 4:20 p.m. with a pre-game show. Alder T. Almo

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