Loss to UST a wake up call, says Tolomia after 10-turnover night

Tolomia accounted for 10 of FEU’s 21 TOs in the loss to UST. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Mike Tolomia had one of his worst games of his collegiate career after he committed 10 turnovers in Far Eastern University’s sorry loss to University of Santo Tomas on Wednesday.

Tolomia attributed some of those miscues to the Growling Tigers’ “aggressive” defense, but also pointed out that his teammates were not prepared for his passes.

“Depensa nila sobrang aggressive tapos yung iba kong mga teammates hindi sila ready na pagbinibigay ko yung bola sa kanila hindi nila nasasalo at natataon na hindi nila nasasalo, nalalakasan sila sa pasa kaya dapat ready lang sila,” Tolomia told reporters in Filipino after accounting for nearly half of his team’s 21 turnovers.

(Their [UST] defense was very aggressive and my teammates weren’t ready when I give them the ball, they couldn’t catch it, they feel that my passes were too strong but they have to be ready for it.)

“Hindi naman pwede na ilang tao lang yung ready tapos yung iba hindi sila ready so dapat magising na kami dito sa talo na ito,” he added.

(We can’t afford to only have a few guys to be ready and the others are not. So we must be able to wake up from this loss.)

Tolomia’s forgetful outing came just three days after posting 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists in 20 minutes of action in FEU’s 88-64 drubbing of Ateneo.

The Tamaraws had the chance to win the game in the final 15 seconds but Tolomia coincidentally  committed his 10th turnover on the last play when Mac Belo couldn’t handle his pass as time ran out.

A few plays before that, Tolomia chalked up his ninth turnover when he dribbled the ball off his foot.

FEU head coach Nash Racela said those 21 miscues played a big factor in the game especially with UST netting 26 points of them.

“Not really specific to Mike but as a team we committed 21 turnovers so that was a big factor because I think percentage wise we shot around 47% which was nice but the problem was when we turned the ball over and a lot of the turnovers where converted to layups immediately,” Racela said.

The graduating guard feels that losing couldn’t have come at a better time with the season just starting.

“Mas okay samin na nangyari na ngayon yon na natalo kami para habang maaga pa magising na kami na kaya kaming talunin ng ibang teams.”

(It’s better that we lost at this stage of the season so that it will serve as an early wake up call for us that we can be beaten by other teams.)