The tournament started on August 14,
Qualifying round UP had its win against Educational Institute reversed as one of its players was ruled ineligible. Later in the tournament, as a result of fielding in ineligible players, all of Educational Institute's games were downgraded to
exhibition games.
Group A Group B Championship round UP lost its first two games in the championship round, against Ateneo and National University, virtually guaranteeing a new champion this season. NU themselves were beaten by Santo Tomas, who were led by
Herminio Silva to eliminate the former in contention. The game between UP and UST was
postponed due to rain. Ateneo then avenged their qualifying round loss against National, setting up a virtual winner-takes-all game against UST for the title. In the penultimate game that would have decided the championship, UST defeated Ateneo 55–53 in
overtime, with a record crowd of 4,000 fans. Ateneo led after the end of regulation 47–46, and Ateneo players celebrated; a retabulation saw the game tied at 47–all. Both captains decided to play an extra five minutes to decide the winner, however, one of the referees, Lt. Bowen, had already left.
Lou Salvador officiated the overtime by his lonesome, and Ateneo put the game under protest, arguing that in a championship game, there should at least be two referees. Santo Tomas's Father Sancho told the NCAA board that there were instances that games were handled by only one referee; Ateneo's Father Hurley argued that this should only happen with the consent of both
captains, with Hurley saying that they agreed to the overtime as there would have been a fight among the supporters in the venue if they decided otherwise. It was then decided to bring the matter to a neutral body to be chaired by
Regino Ylanan. Ylanan chose Victor Buencamino and SIlvestre Torres as members of this neutral board; if UST lost the protest, they would ask to make the championship decided on a
best-of-three series. After three meetings, the body decided to dismiss Ateneo's protest. While the committee's letter of the decision was curt, if was inferred that they took into account that it was not Santo Tomas's fault that Lt. Bowen left after thinking that the game was over. Father Hurley accepted the decision of the body. On November 6, 1930, UST formalized the championship with a win against UP (from their postponed game earlier), finishing the season undefeated, giving the championship to coach
Dionisio Calvo. This is UST's sole NCAA seniors' basketball title. UST, UP and NU withdrew from the NCAA in 1936, and founded the
University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) in 1938. Ateneo joined the UAAP in 1978.
Team standings Match-up results Scores Awards == Midgets' tournament ==