A win away from UAAP title, FEU wary of last year’s finals loss

FEU’s Roger Pogoy (right) gets one step ahead of UST’s Louie Vigil during Game 1 of the UAAP Season 78 men’s basketball Finals on Wednesday night at Mall of Asia Arena. The Tamaraws won, 75-64. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Far Eastern University moved one win away from its first UAAP championship in the last 10 years, but to its head coach Nash Racela, the Tamaraws haven’t done anything yet.

Racela and the rest of the Tamaraws are wary of what happened to them last year when they yielded the title to the National University Bulldogs despite holding a 1-0 lead.

Two seasons ago, University of Santo Tomas took the finals opener, but also went on to lose in the best-of-three finals series to De La Salle University. 

“We expect them to come back strong,” Racela said of UST after FEU salvaged a 75-64 victory in Game 1 of the finals after blowing a 14-point lead.

“I think we’ve learned our lesson from last year’s finals. We’re up one game but we lost the series. We’re hoping that it’s a good reminder for us to be just be humble and continue to work and correct things so that we’ll get another win, that’s the objective,” Racela added.

Mike Tolomia is one of the veterans part of that FEU team that fell short of a title and with that painful moment in mind, he immediately called out his frenzied teammates to remind them there was no cause for any celebration.

“I just told them not to celebrate yet because of what happened to us last year,” the graduating guard said in Filipino.

“There’s no need for any of that.”