FEU continues rise, nears F4 berth

Janrey Pasaol. —UAAP MEDIA .

Sean Chambers has always known that Far Eastern University (FEU) would be a problem for other teams in the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.

And that’s even when the Tamaraws toted a 1-6 (win-loss) record.

Now, FEU is validating its coach’s faith as it continues to boost with its chance of breaking through the Final Four.

The Tamaraws completed a season sweep of Ateneo with a 65-54 triumph on Saturday at Smart Araneta Coliseum to put pressure on the other playoffs chasers.

“I sent [the Tamaraws] a message today on our chatline [saying] ‘I’m hard on you with discipline because I love you. If I don’t love you, I won’t discipline you because I want the best for you,” Chambers said.

“Their response has been amazing. Basically, they’re just good kids. They’re disciplined. And they wanna win. Sometimes, we kinda get a little bit out of the things we do. But at the end of the day, they kept fighting,” he added.

Settling scores

FEU rose to No. 5 after improving to a 5-7 card and celebrated a milestone of sorts.

“[O]ur goal was to … can we beat a team twice in the tournament? So, that was the big thing for today. And [the goal] continued to grow from [just having more wins than] last year.”

Chambers has also been vocal at settling scores with the teams that defeated them in the first round and save for repeating over the Blue Eagles, the Tamaraws have avenged losses against Adamson, National University and University of the East.

“The guys are once again, so coachable. And they are getting better … You have to have some success in order for them to completely be bought into it,” Chambers said.

Despite that collection of wins, however, Chambers believes his team turned things around on its losses. FEU has lost both games to defending champion La Salle this season—68-62 in the first round and 58-53 in the second.

“In the first round where we only had a win and then we played La Salle, that’s where we felt the boost in every practice where we think ‘we can play closely against the No. 1 team,’” Janrey Pasaol, who had a career-best performance with 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists, said.