Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Far Eastern University weathered through the storm that hit its campaign in the UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball tournament and is now on the verge of entering the Final Four with just one more hurdle to cross.
The Tamaraws’ dominant 82-56 win over Adamson University Sunday at Mall of Asia Arena bumped their record to 8-6 and gave them a playoff game against De La Salle for the last semifinals slot.
This 8-6 record was the result of FEU’s brutal four-game slide in the middle of its schedule and those losses were against, at that time, teams in contention for semifinal spots.
University of Santo Tomas, Ateneo, University of the Philippines, and La Salle beat the Tamaraws during that stretch but head coach Olsen Racela said he’s just thankful that they were able to recover from that skid with a three-game winning streak and they know they can’t waste the opportunity that they’re given.
“If we took care of business early on, we should’ve been in a good position but we’re finally getting the breaks,” said Racela, who lost center Prince Orizu due to injury for the last three games of the losing streak.
“Those were crucial games against teams that were near us in the table but we now have an opportunity, one more game, one more blessing so we have to make good use of it,” added Racela.
Forward Arvin Tolentino, who finished with 10 points and five rebounds, added that the knockout duel against the Green Archers won’t be as easy as their blowout win over the Falcons, who played sans Sean Manganti and Jerrick Ahanmisi.
“It won’t be easy like our game today, but we have to give a hundred percent in practice so we can prepare in the best way we can,” said Tolentino in Filipino.