FEU’s RJ Abarrientos. UAAP PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — RJ Abarrientos admitted his frustration after Far Eastern University absorbed its third straight loss despite his 33-point explosion in the UAAP Season 84 men’s basketball tournament.
The rookie guard drilled eight three pointers, tying the most points scored by a Tamaraw since Terence Romeo’s 33 in Season 76 nine years ago, but his explosive outing went for naught as FEU bowed to National University 68-73 on Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena.
“We’re so frustrated. Our team is so down after what happened. We’re struggling and it’s hard to lose three straight games,” said Abarrientos.
Abarrientos was shut down by NU’s airtight defense in the fourth quarter, where he only scored three and his team only scored one field goal in the last five minutes of the game.
“Obviously, they tightened their defense on me. It was a big challenge for me and the team. NU has a deeper bench that made us struggle in the last quarter. We had a lot of struggles and mistakes,” he said.
FEU coach Olsen Racela stressed that everyone from his team has to step up after NU’s bench outscored their second unit, 40-11.
“Obviously, we need production from the other guys, that’s what we lacked in the past three games. We didn’t get any production from our bench. I need to address that,” said Racela.
“And aside from that defensively, we could not get the stops when we needed to, we could not get the rebound when we needed to. We need to learn and improve in playing in the crucial moments of the game.”
Despite falling to 1-3 record, Abarrientos is hoping that this slump will help them rise as they move forward.
“I’m sticking to the positive side. I want to see my team jell whatever happens in the game. These losses will test our team chemistry and our characters,” the Gilas Pilipinas guard said.
Abarrientos hopes the Tamaraws will end the dry spell against the winless University of the East Red Warriors (0-4) on Tuesday, where spectators will be back at MOA Arena.